The World of Games
by Lelin
Summary: Most stories of the strong start off with the underdog, growing as both a person and a fighter and slaying the wicked, or of a chosen hero who holds great power... This story, isn't either of those, but of a group of teenagers aiming maybe a bit too high. And with the world suddenly becoming an RPG, what's to stop them? Certainly not the monsters in the dungeons.
1. Game, Start!

**A/N: Hey, sorry for being absent for such a long time, but I've been working on both this, and the rewrite for 'Fate of a Gamer' which will be going up on the weekends, I'll try to keep a schedule for both this story and Fate of a Gamer, but I make no promises.**

**Now due to past experience, I know at least one, or maybe a few, will complain about the main character in one way (you'll know when you see it.) and all I have to say is, it's actually a plot point that will be explored in later chapters, and that's all you're getting form me.**

**I'd also like to thank a kind person by the name 'PanKeRio' as he was the only person to give OC characters to play specific roles (They'll come in later chapters).**

**Anyways, on with the chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Game, Start!**

* * *

It was a bright and early Sunday morning, and at around 8 AM an alarm goes off that wakes up a 15 year old boy from his sleep, He groans and tries to cover his ears but starts to get up, "Fine, I get it, I'm UP!" He grabs his Iphone and turns off the alarm before slamming the phone against the bed, he waits for a moment before groaning and sitting up.

Today was the 31st of march, the day before he had to go to the new school, because he got expelled from his old one for defending himself, damn hypocrites, the lot of them.

He got up and went to his computer, but not before hearing an alarm, "For the love of god, I turned you o-..." he stops while realising his phone was still turned off, but a panel was floating above his bed, it seemed like a hologram of sorts.

"Okay...? What in the fuck are you?" he mutters to himself before grabbing a hold of the edge of the panel and was able to move it, he sits on his bed and begins reading it.

**Hello inhabitants of Earth, You have been given the opportunity to play test a new game called 'Reality Progress Game' or RPG for short.**

**In this game, reality itself bends to be like that of an RPG video game, and every person now has level, stats, skills, and such.**

**Now, it would be unfair if you were physically weaker then everyone else, so for the first day only, you will be allowed to go into a Character creation mode to remake yourself a proper body strong enough to go against other players.**

**If you wish to go into Character Creation, just say 'Start Character Creation' out loud and it will take you to a different realm where you can spend up to ten hours creating a character (Only an hour in the real world will have passed)**

**Now, a short Tutorial. (Verbal or thinking)**

**Stats: Opens Stat page**

**Traits: Opens Traits**

**Skills: Opens skills**

**Inventory: Opens Inventory**

**Options: Opens Options**

**Create Party: Creates a party (You can team up with friends to go monster hunting)**

**Invite [Username] to party: How to invite people to parties.**

**That's all you need to know for now.**

...

"Huh..." he watches as the panel disappears in his hand, he looks at the time, it was two minutes past 8 AM, meaning that happened at around or exactly on 8 AM.

He walks out into the kitchen, since his room was connected to it, and walked down the hallway to see his parents reading the same panel in the living room, "Hey." he waves lazily at them, they look at him for a moment, "Arthur, did you also see this?" His mother ask him, "Yeah, I already read the whole thing." He sits on the couch, before thinking _'Stats'_.

A bell like sound later, a panel appears in front of him.

**Name: Arthur Bell  
Level: 1 (100 EXP to Level Up)  
****Title: [None]  
Race: Human**

**HP: 100/100  
HPR: 0.5 HP/m  
MP: 200/200  
MPR: 4 MP/m**

**STR: 8  
VIT: 5  
DEX: 7  
INT: 15  
WIS: 20  
LUCK: 5**

**Points: 0  
Money: $0**

Huh... If he was looking at this correctly, he was more of a magic caster build as his INT and WIS were much higher then his physical stats, actually, all his physical stats combined equal his WIS.

His parents did the same thing, which confused him as to the fact their INT and WIS were much lower then his, but he doesn't bring it up.

_'If I looked at the sub total of my stats, I have a total of 60 points. But that's weird, my parents have a sub total of 30 and 36.'_ he was confused about why his stats were much higher, so he decides to check his Traits, see if that gave any hints.

He did apparently have one, so he reads it out in his head.

**[Genius - Rank: 4 - Trait]  
****The player starts with 15 INT and 20 WIS, and will gain 3 INT and 2 WIS per level**

... Well that explained it...

Although he didn't think he was a genius, there were plenty of smarter people then him in his old school... Maybe he got it from the game?

He sighs out loud while leaning back, he really didn't want to deal with this, but he kind of had too right now.

"Hey, Arthur, what's you're stats?" He looks over to his father, Arthur figured out that people couldn't see each other's stats unless allowed, at least when it came to the stat page.

"Nothing special, most stats are around 5, but I seem to lack Physical stats more then my mental ones." his father nods, Arthur decides to look above their heads.

**John Bell LV1**

**Katelyn Bell LV1**

_'Alright, so everyone starts at level one despite age difference...'_ Aiden stands up and looks at his skills next, which had nothing in them, which was annoying, he also found that he only had ten slots for skills, so he'll have to plan for what he really needed skill wise.

_'No mundane stuff, probably... One weapon skill, maybe sword or handgun, maybe two to three element skills, a transform skill, and the rest I'll have to think on later.'_ he sighs, this would be annoying to manage.

"So... I'm thinking of doing the Character Creation thing." His parents looked at him in shock, "I mean, think about it, for all I know I'll become much stronger and can handle myself easier, and that first notification did say something about monster hunting, so I don't want to get killed being unprepared."

His parents were silent for a moment, "Al-Alright then, I can understand that..." His mother seemed hesitant, but agreed.

"Arthur, you're only 15 years old, You're not gonna be fighting monsters." Arthur looks at his dad, who seemed stern, "Oh yeah? Watch me. Start Character Creation." When he said 'start' his father tried reaching for him to shut him up, but he was too late and grabbed air as Arthur Disappeared.

Arthur appeared in a black void with a pedestal and a few panels around him, he taps the one that says 'Refund Stats'.

He goes to his stats and see all his stats minus INT and WIS were at 1 and he had around 35 points, he goes through the stats and makes STR and DEX 10, his VIT 12, and his LUCK 7, as his INT and WIS stat stayed the same as before (probably due to the trait he got).

"Alright, Stat's look good for a starter." He mumbles to himself before going to the appearance panel, when he touched it a perfect copy of himself appears on the pedestal with his arms out to the sides.

"Alright, let's see what I can do..." he looks at Race, but he got a notification when tapping it.

**Due to requirements being met, User [Arthur Bell] has access to [Fictional Races].**

... Huh...?

He looks at the list before him, there were the standard like Human, dog (Who would even become a dog?), and birds (That made abit more sense).

However, once he strolled past all the normal stuff he saw stuff like 'Angel', 'Dragon', 'Demon', and also 'God', however he couldn't pick that last one as he needed to be level 100 to do so, so he looks at all the humanoid races to see how they benefit him.

"My god Human's are fragile compared to some of these..." Seriously, Dragon started with 250 VIT, that's an easy 2,500 HP if he did his maths right.

He picks Demon, which looked completely human, but he would start as a [Lesser Demon], which would take the form of a 'Racial Trait', Each level he gained 2 VIT and STR per level, and it would be viable for a Rank up once he met some requirements.

So he literally only had to worry about DEX and LUCK when using stat points, as everything already went up on it's own.

The Racial Trait also gave him two extra skill slots, which were taken up by a passive and a transformation skill, so that's already off his list.

Now what...?

He looks at himself on the pedestal and thinks, "Well... Eh, why the hell not?" he begins playing around with the settings for the next few hours, because he wanted this to be perfect.

He stared at a female, long white hair that reached her waist with red eyes, slightly tanned skin, she was around 158 cm tall, weighed about 43Kg, and the three sizes being 83-56-82, Bust, Waist and Hip size respectfully.

He looks at it before muttering to himself, "Why the hell am I doing this...?" he taps the accept button and in a flash of light his body changes to be perfectly like the one he, now she, created, "This is so stupid... Oh hey, at least my voice sounds nice." she mutters after realising she sounded slightly dulcet and hollow combined, it was nice, it sounded nice.

"Well, at least something good came out of this cluster-fuck I've decided to dig myself into." she sighs before a panel pops up, it said 'List of available starting skills', which had a list of some mundane and useless skills under it, minus maybe 'speech' which reading it gave her high chances to convince or deceive someone with words alone, but she didn't want that.

She gets a panel that had her name, 'Arthur Bell', she just changes Arthur to Artoria and be done with it.

"Well, Guess I'm done now..." As if hearing her, she appears back in the living room, Her parents turning towards her and her mother speaking up after a few moments of silence, "A-Arthur...?" she points above her to where her name tag should be, "Technically Artoria now, but yeah, it's me."

...

"You made yourself a girl...?" her fathers speaks, "Yeah, gonna be honest, about halfway through character creation I forgot why I even decided to do it." she shrugs, "But then I thought, 'Fuck it, I've already spent about two hours on this, might as well'. Now I'm just hoping I remember why I did it soon."

She yawns into her hand, "man, I'm tired... What time is it?" "About 8:30." she nods to her mothers answer, "Whelp, I'm gonna go sleep for abit, wake me up at 10." she walks to her room and goes back to sleep.

1 and a half hours later, her mother comes to wake her up, "You... May want to come check this out." Artoria walks into the living room and looks on the TV, it had the headline 'Mass Murder in small town, killer says 'He wanted to get EXP to be stronger.''

"What the...?" She stares in shock, but after some thought it made sense, of course some of the mentally insane would try and use the game to justify killing other people, but it made her feel sick.

"Arthu-Artoria, You have school tomorrow, so we should probably call up and go introduce your new appearance and official name to the system." She thinks on what her mother said before shrugging, "Yeah, sure."

After getting into a change of clothes (that were abit too big for her now as she was smaller), so they went to a clothing store and bought her a few sets of school uniform and a couple sets of casual wear for around the house, and another set which consisted of a black long sleeve shirt, black jeans, and a black hoodie with with fur around the edge of the hood.

Which came at a total of $200 dollars, including underwear, which was annoying to get used to, but she had to deal with it.

Thankfully, she didn't have to wear a skirt, just go with the boy's jeans she already had, which did cut the cost by quite abit, in a white shirt with blue jeans and sneakers that actually fits her, they go to school to get her info updated.

It was an annoying and long process but at about Midday they got through all of it and even got an updated photo for her, on the drive back they go to McDonald's, and get a few meals before getting home.

After food Artoria goes into her room, "Alright, lets see what these skills I got from my Racial Trait are..."

**[Demon Form (Active) LV1 0.00%]  
****Transforms the user into a demonic version of themselves, strengthening them physically  
****\- +1 STR  
\- +2 VIT  
\- +1 DEX  
****Cost: 100 MP per second**

**[Mana Affinity (Passive) LV1 0.00%]  
A skill that allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it better.**  
**\- +5% increase in MP recovery rate.**  
**\- +2% increase in total MP amount.**  
**\- +2% increase in magic attack.**  
**\- +2% increase in magic defense.**  
**\- +10% increase in MP related skill effects.**

"Hmm... Okay... So if I figure out how to train Mana Affinity then that would increase my abilities in Magic... When I get it anyways... Oh yeah, I should probably figure that out." she sits on her bed after putting all her new clothes away and throwing all the other clothes out (probably for charity for those who needed it).

"Let's see... Maybe if I use Demon form I'll get a better feel for it...? But then I'll run out of MP almost instantly..." She thinks for a moment before deciding to do it the hard way.

She raises her hand in front of her with her palm upwards and searched for a feeling of warmth within her body, she pulled it towards her hand and a ball of Mana forms in her hand.

"Okay... This works..." she thinks for a moment before closing her eyes and imaging a flame forming, when she opens her eyes she sees the ball of mana turned into a ball of fire, and suddenly she get's a notification.

**Due to special actions, You are eligible for [Fire Manipulation] and [Mana Manipulation]**.

She looks at the two skills, that would take up two of her possible ten skills, but both were probably very useful in the long run, so she decides to get them.

She looks them over and find that they would be pretty useful combat wise, but to her knowledge she had nothing to fight...

"The tutorial said something about Monster hunting... How would I go and hunt monsters?" she mutters to herself before deciding to go through the menu's.

She saw nothing interesting until she got to the options, which had stuff like subtitles, mini-map, and other things, she decided to enable the subtitles and mini-map for now to see what they do.

In the top right corner of her vision she saw a map that stretched about... five kilometres? That seemed right.

She saw green, red and purple Icons, the green and red's were in houses, so they were probably people and animals, but the purple one's seemed to be in odd places, like the park nearby on at her new school.

She decides to get into a set of black clothing plus the hoodie before setting out to one of the purple Icon's.

On her way there she got some looks from people, mostly male, and one even tried hitting on her, "Hey girl, why don't you come to my place and we can _hang,_ if you know what I mean."

She stares at him for a moment, "I'm 15..." his eyes widen in shock, as does everyone else's who was listening to see her response.

"I just look like this because of the Character Creation." She lightly kicks the man in the balls, "And that's for hitting on me." before walking away from him towards the Icon.

Artoria see's a portal of sorts where the Purple Icon was, and saw people crowding around it, it was only around 12 people, she goes up to one of the people around it, a brunette girl with blue eyes, "Hey, you know what's going on?" the girl shrugs, Before they hear a 'plop' next to them and turn to see... a market stand that wasn't there before?

At the stand was a girl in a black hoodie, her hair blond and... she had cat ears, and blue eyes as well, Artoria glances up at her name tag to see what it was.

**Lelin LV?  
****Administrator **

... The fuck?

"Heyo!" The cat girl waves at everyone, causing people to look at her and look above her to see her level and title.

"So, you're all probably wondering what's going on, so I'm here to both inform you, and offer help and items!~" Artoria walks up to her, "Alright, let's hear it." Lelin leans back and holds a hand over her chest in mock hurt, "Oh, such a cold shoulder!" Artoria just stares at her oddly.

"Anyways, this here-" she points to the portal, "-is a Dungeon Portal, it'll take you to a dungeon - Obviously - where you can duke it out with monsters galore to gather materials that you can sell to me and I'll give you money depending on the materials."

Artoria nods while crossing her arms, "I see, a merchant outside of a dungeon would be the most profitable." Lelin nods while being her a thumbs up, "Righty-o there, Red Eyes. However it's not just this dungeon, I'm the merchant for all dungeons." 'Red Eyes' looks at The Admin for a moment, "Wait, how-?" "Well, being well above level ten thousand, I'm easily capable of existing in multiple places at once."

...

"Hold up, did you sa-" "ANYWAY! If you need info about the dungeon, I can supply recommended level, dungeon type and monster type for free, any more then that and you'll need to start paying." Artoria sighs, "Well, what is the recommended level, dungeon type and monster type?"

"Recommended level is 3, Dungeon type is Cave, and Monster type is Beast." alright then, not much but it's something.

"Hmm..." she glances at the portal and turns back to her, "Do you sell items?" Lelin thinks for a moment, "Yeah, I do, whacha ya lookin' for?" She covers her mouth, "Oops, sorry, accent cut in abit there." Artoria shrugs, "What about weapons?"

Lelin thinks, "well, that depends, are you buying a permanent or rental weapon?" Artoria shrugs, "Rental, I guess?"

"Alright, rules on Rental weapons are simply, you buy it, take it in a dungeon with you, and once you leave you'll have to return it." she nods, that made sense, "Is there an after pay for rentals?" Lelin thinks for a moment.

"Yeah, all Rental's cost 20 dollar's up front, but if you want to pay with the material's you return after going in, it'll be 25 dollars." Artoria nods before looking among the people around them, a few extra has shown up and some of them were thinking.

"Hey, quick question, anyone here going to Silverleaf High School?" a few people raise their hands, some confused and some figuring out what she was gonna ask, "alright, any of you wanna go in with me?" a few moments past before two people step forward, a rather buff boy, guessing wise, Artoria would say he's 15 or 16, he had white hair that flipped over to one side and green eyes, the other one was a girl with long brown hair and green eyes, "Alright then, no one else?" no one else stepped forward, so Artoria leads them away from the crowd.

"Alright, so what are you're stat builds?" After abit of talking, Artoria figures out that the boy, Named Micheal , was good for a tank role, as he had 20 VIT and 15 STR, which he probably got from a trait but he wouldn't reveal it, and the girl, named Rebecka, was good for DPS and stealth having high DEX and also having a Stealth based skill.

"Alright, I'm more prone to magic as I have high Intelligence and Wisdom, and I already have two skill's related to Magic Manipulation, so I'd probably be a good pick for back line support, what are your thoughts on this?" The two shrugged, they didn't seem to care, "Alright, I'll go talk to Lelin and see about getting weapons for us."

They walk over, "Hey Lelin." she waves at the cat girl, who waves back, "Hello~!" Artoria smiles at her attitude slightly, "could you hook my friends up with a Knife and a Sword & Shield combo?" Lelin thinks for a moment before nodding, "Sure, I'll even give a discount on the shield. instead of 45 dollars for the sword and shield, I'll cut the Shield's price in half and only make him have to pay 35, unless of course you can pay for them now?"

Micheal shakes his head, "No, I don't have money at the moment." Lelin nods before ducking under the table cloth and coming back up with the items requested, "'ere ya go!" She turns away and mutters to herself, 'did it again...' before turning back to Artoria, "and you Red Eyes?"

"Hmm..." she motions Lelin to come closer and whispers into her ear, "Oooh... Interesting choice, I got some in stock, so you're in luck." she ducks under again and comes out with a... handgun...?

"Here you go." she hands the weapons plus weapon hostels to the three, Micheal straps them to his back, Rebecka to her left hip, and Artoria to her right thigh.

"Alright, total pricing is 85 Dollars, now go make some money~!" Artoria sighs, "Alright then, Create Party: First Mission. Invite to Party: Micheal Knight, Rebecka Green." they get the notifications and Artoria get's a notification about party settings, "hey, you two want equal EXP distribution on?" they nod, make it easier for them to level equally.

"Alright, we should be ready to go... So let's do this." they walk into the portal and find themselves in a cave of sorts, it was dark but touches lit the walls, making it bearable to see, the three stood with their weapons at the ready.

"You two see anything?" Rebecka whispers, but getting two negative's from Artoria and Micheal, "Well, let's move..." they nod before continuing down the cave system, Artoria was keeping an eye on the mini-map, which had a sudden group of red dots appear, "We got company." she aims towards where they'll be coming from while Micheal get's ready with his shield to block attacks while Rebecka sneaked around to get some stealth kills.

A horde of giant rat's came around the corner and rushed towards them, Artoria took aim with her gun and aim towards the first few, she pulls the trigger and feels a drain on her mana, a ball of energy shoots out the barrel and impacts into a few of the rat's, dealing quite abit of damage, Artoria saw a bar above the rats and figured that's their HP bar, which Micheal capitalised on and sliced at them with his sword, dealing a hefty amount of damage and getting their HP down to about 20%.

He was about to be bitten by one of the uninjured rats, but it was shot out of the air by Artoria with her gun, she pumped in alot more MP into that shot, killing the rat instantly.

"I see... so I can kill them with 15 MP..." She mutters to herself before opening fire on the others, using 10 MP as to not run out of MP too quickly, but lowering them enough for Micheal to kill them in one hit with his sword, they get through the horde and Micheal turns his back, as a Giant Rat from the pile of bodies jumps out at him, but Rebecka jumped from the ceiling and stabbed it in the neck, killing it instantly.

"Jeez, don't let you guard down so easily, Micheal." Rebecka laughs slightly while embarrassing Micheal in front of Artoria, "Well, That didn't exactly go to plan, but it went well and no one was injured, so everything is fine." Artoria says while walking towards the dead giant rats and seeing a panel pop up.

**Harvest Giant Rats?  
Y/N**

She taps the 'Y' option and the rat's disappear and she got a notification.

**Harvested [8] Giant Rats, 300 EXP (1/3: 100 EXP), 2 Giant Rat Pelts.**

**You've levelled up.**

**You have [2] undistributed Giant Rat Pelts.**

She hands the two extra one's to Micheal, "Your payment is more then ours, so you need it more then us." he nods in appreciation before putting it in his inventory.

They look around, "Well, we need to gather more Items... how much do you think we'd need?" Artoria ask them, "I dunno, maybe 10 to 20 each?" They think for a moment before agreeing to get 20 each.

So 52 dead Giant Rats and three level ups later, they were finished, and couldn't find anymore anyways, but there was a giant door at the end of the cave.

...

"ten bucks says this is the boss room." Artoria pipes up, making the other two sigh, "we ain't taking that bet." she shrugs before thinking, "Well... If we kill the boss, it'll drop an expensive Item, which we could keep or sell for extra cash."

The two thinks about it before agreeing to go in, they got plenty stronger in the time they spent fighting rats.

They step in and see a large, Humanoid rat sitting on a throne with a large axe next to it, above it was the name 'Rat King'.

"Alright, Let's do this!" Rebecka called out while dashing to the side and climbing up a pillar, Micheal going forward to defence and Artoria shooting from afar with her gun, after while Micheal was pretty beaten up, so to save him Rebecka jumped down for a stealth attack, lowering the beast to half way, it turned around and Launched Rebecka into a pillar, she was too damaged to move and was looking in fear as the boss descended on her.

"HEY RAT BREATH!" The rat turned to see Artoria running towards it, it tried splitting her in two with a downward swing, "Micheal, Get Rebecka out of there!" He nods before running off to save her, Artoria dodged another slice and noticed Micheal was carrying her female party member away, "Alright then..."

She jumps forward and lands sideways just on it's chin, she used her legs to open the mouth while aiming down it's throat with her gun. "Chew on this!" She pumps all the remaining MP she had into the gun and changed it to fire, and Pulls the trigger "FLAME BULLET!"

The bullet flies into it and she quickly jumps away and watches as the 4 meter tall Humanoid Rat exploded and burned from the inside.

She falls to her knees and pants heavily, seemed using a large amount of Mana tired a person out.

"Hey Artoria, you okay?" Micheal ask as he helps her to were Rebecka was, "Y-yeah, just exhausted..." she checks out her gun and see it was fine, if slightly burned.

Just then, the three all got a notification, each abit different.

**Due to fighting and defeating a boss mob with a weapon, you are eligible for [Handgun Proficiency]**

Micheal and Rebecka had similar panels, only for Sword & Shield and Dagger.

"Well, it'll help improve our fighting abilities, so why not?" they all shrug while accepting the new skill.

After awhile Artoria can get up again, she goes over to the now chard corpse of the Rat King and harvest it.

**Harvested [BOSS] Rat King, 2550 EXP (1/3: 850 EXP), 1 Rat King Pelt, 1 Rat King Axe.**

That got them two level ups, They stretch slightly before walking to the exit of the dungeon.

They also decided that since Artoria dealt the most damage, she should have it the Rat King's drops.

Once they exit the dungeon they check the time, it was currently 5 PM.

"Oh man, my mom is gonna kill me..." Rebecka says, "you just fought in a life or death situation... And you're worried about your mom?" Artoria asked with a deadpanned stare, "Well _I'm_ sorry, but my mother is really strict with me." Artoria shrugs before turning to Micheal, who also shrugs, "Meh, I can deal with my parents, what about you?"

Artoria thinks for a moment, "It'll be a hassle, but I did leave with the intent of growing stronger, and they agree to it, and I'm not missing Dinner, so I should be fine." they go over to Lelin, who was happily waiting for them, "Alright then~ Shall you show the materials you gather so I can exchange them?" they all give her 20 Giant Rat Pelts each, shocking her.

"U-uh... do you know how much these go for?" they shrug, they didn't really know, "They go for 4 dollars each. meaning each of you has 80 dollars from this alone." they look at her in shock, they were expecting 1 or maybe 2 dollars.

They pay off their rental gear and hand it back to her, leaving Artoria with $65, she reached into her inventory and pulled out the Rat King Pelt and hands it to Lelin, "How much is that?" Lelin looks at it in shock, "T-that's 150 dollars..." Artoria looks in shock, "Split it among my party." Lelin nods and gives 50 to each of the three.

"And this?" She pulls out the giant Axe the Rat King used, "aaaah..." Lelin stared in shock, "We... didn't expect anyone to get that on day one... but it's 300 dollars." she nods and before she can say split it, Rebecka told her to give them 50 each and Artoria get's 200.

"W-what...?" Rebecka smiles, "I would of been dead if it weren't for you, you deserve it for saving my life." Artoria looks confused, she never really got reward for anything before, but this felt nice, Micheal pats her on the back.

"Yeah, you deserve it, Leader." Artoria stiffened slightly, "Uh... Should I not of said that?" Artoria shakes her head.

"No... It just... felt odd... 'Leader'... I like it." she smiles at the two and added them on Discord from their phones before disbanding the party and going their separate ways.

* * *

Next time on The World of Games  
_"Hey, so you're the one that started the first hunt?"_

_"If it isn't my three favourite customers! And I see you brought some extra's with you this time?"_

_"Well... That was eventful."_

* * *

**Stats**

**Name: Artoria Bell  
Level: 7 ****(700 EXP to Level Up)****  
****Title: [None]  
Race: Lesser Demon**

**HP: 590/590  
HPR: 14.2 HP/m  
MP: 693/693  
MPR: 23.3 MP/m**

**STR: 22  
VIT: 24  
DEX: 10  
INT: 33  
WIS: 32  
LUCK: 7**

**Elemental Affinity  
Fire: 10**

**Points: 35  
Money: $315**

**Traits**

**[Genius - Rank: 4 - Trait]  
****The player starts with 15 INT and 20 WIS, and will gain 3 INT and 2 WIS per level**

**[Lesser Demon - Rank: 1 - Racial Trait]  
****The player gains two extra Skill Slots at beginning, and gains 2 STR and VIT per level.  
(Automatically gives Skills: [Demon Form] & [Mana Affinty]**

**Skills**

**[Demon Form (Active) LV1 0.00%]  
****Transforms the user into a demonic version of themselves, strengthening them physically  
****\- +1 STR  
\- +2 VIT  
\- +1 DEX  
****Cost: 100 MP per second**

**[Handgun ****Proficiency (Passive) LV1 0.00%]  
****Increases the user's proficiency with Handguns  
****\- +2% Accuracy with Handguns  
****\- +4% Damage with Handguns**

**[Mana Affinity (Passive) LV1 0.00%]  
A skill that allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it better.**  
**\- +5% increase in MP recovery rate.**  
**\- +2% increase in total MP amount.**  
**\- +2% increase in magic attack.**  
**\- +2% increase in magic defence.**  
**\- +10% increase in MP related skill effects.**

**[Mana Manipulation (Active) LV1 1.50%]  
****Allows the user to manipulate their mana into attacks or defense  
****\- +20% increase to Magic Attack/Defence  
****Cost: Varies**

**[Fire Manipulation (Active) LV1 1.50%]  
****Allows the user to transform their mana into fire for multiple uses  
****\- +20% Effectiveness with Fire  
\- +1% Resistance to Fire  
****Cost: Varies**


	2. The Twins

**A/N: Real happy at the positive response to the story so far! I know I was... like two, maybe three months (completely forgot if I promised to first post at the beginning or end or ****October) late, **

**N4N4251:** Thanks for the words of encouragement!

**Mynameiszake:** Glad you look forward too more.

**PanKeRio:** The gender change is what I was referring to in the Author Note in chapter one, there is actually a story related reason to that later that will slowly but surely be brought up more and more until the reveal.

Also, Cults _will_ be a thing, won't say anything else about that though.

It was literally day one, for an event like this the world government would have to gather and lay down laws, _which is also brought up in later chapters._

The reaction thing is also a story related thing, but not as much as everything else that'll happen.

Glad you liked the dungeon and the Admin, and you really think there aren't rules in place for Admins not to give too much information?

Well, Cat girls are the best, besides maybe wolf girls, but personal preference there.

Thanks for the review, and hope you enjoy the chapter!

**Mini-Toepunt:** Yeah, I've only seen people sent to game like works in stories, but never an example of our world becoming like a game, so I wanted to explore the idea, I do pride myself on being atleast slightly creative (Even if I only post stories about characters with Gamer abilities. It's just those are what I'm best at writing.)

* * *

Last time on The World of Games  
_"W-what...?" Rebecka smiles, "I would of been dead if it weren't for you, you deserve it for saving my life." Artoria looks confused, she never really got reward for anything before, but this felt nice, Micheal pats her on the back._

_"Yeah, you deserve it, Leader." Artoria stiffened slightly, "Uh... Should I not of said that?" Artoria shakes her head._

_"No... It just... felt odd... 'Leader'... I like it." she smiles at the two and added them on Discord from their phones before disbanding the party and going their separate ways._

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Twins**

* * *

Once Artoria got home, she talked with her family about everything that happened and that she managed to make friends at school before school even started, which they were happy about.

She also noticed her father was alot skinnier and her mother looked younger, they probably used Character Creation to physically change themselves to be more fit, which was neat.

Her sister got home and looked at her for a moment, "Huh, so that's what mom meant." she shrugs before going to help with dinner, leaving Artoria and their father in the living room.

"So, how was hunting?" he ask, making her think for a moment, "It was fine, pretty easy honestly, but it was actually pretty scary nearing the end, if I didn't use up all my MP me and my party members would of died..." she raises a hand to her hair to scratch her head, "and I can't justify using 400 MP in an instant until I get a massive amount of MP regen to I can negate the lost."

He hums, "Well, maybe you should train your skills to be more effective?" She thinks for a moment before nodding, "Yeah, I'll look into doing that after dinner... I have an Idea on how to train one of my more impressive skills." she holds her chin in thought before getting up as dinner was called.

Nothing much happened during dinner, minus Lexi - Her sister - recounting the odd things she saw on the way home.

After dinner she goes into her room and turn her computer on, she had a few messages from her new friends... her only friends that is. asking if she wanted to call, so she types to both of them, 'Sorry, I was planning on doing some Skill training to make them stronger so if we go into a dungeon again it'll be easier. We can chat tomorrow at school and play after that.'

After getting to agreement's and that they'll also do some training, Artoria mutes her phone and computer before sitting on the floor with her legs crossed and her hands cupped together on her lap, she closes her eyes and focuses on the feeling of mana within her body and the flow of it.

She doesn't know how much time has pasted, but once she exits her meditative state she saw two notifications.

**You've become eligible for [Meditation]**

**[Mana Affinity] Has levelled up x4**

She looks at it for a moment before deciding to not learn Meditation, from her knowledge it increased MP Regen while Meditating, which would be useful for training Mana and Fire Manipulation, but she wanted to focus on her affinity for now.

She checks the time and finds it to be around 10 PM, which is the time she was meant to go to sleep, "Jeez, I meditated for four hours...?" she mutters to herself before going to have a shower, brush her teeth and get into a comfy change of clothes before getting in bed, she thinks for a moment before realising Meditation works while lying down, right?

She closes her eyes and focuses on her mana flow, which she continued to do for the entire night.

She opens her eyes to see it was morning, and her mom came in a few moments after she woke up, "Wake up dear, it's time for your first day at your new school." She sits up and yawns while stretching, she checks the notifications she got from meditating all night, which was that her Mana Affinity was now level 9

She checks her stats, and see she has over 800 MP now, only by two points but whatever, and her MP regen was 37.2 a minute.

She went and had a quick 4 minute shower, because apparently using soap in one place uses it everywhere now for some reason, and so did Shampoo and conditioner, so that massively cut down on the time it would of taken to have a shower.

She gets dressed in a formal button up shirt with a silver tie that had a black checker pattern on it with black jeans and business shoes.

She was about to pack stuff into her bag but then got an idea, and opened her inventory and made a new section called 'School', which she dumped all her school supplies into, along with her lunch box when it was finished, she went outside and got into the car with her mom.

"Uh, Arthu-Artoria? Where's your bag?" She smiles and opens her inventory and pulls out a book, "Ah, that makes sense." she puts her book back in her inventory before they drive to school.

_'Hmm... If I dump my points into DEX I could probably get here on my own in about 5 minutes because I wouldn't need to worry about traffic...'_ it was a random thought, but she did realise she didn't use any of the points she earned yet, so she decided to do that while walking to a spot her friends told her about so they could meet up.

Once she got there, she saw both Micheal and Rebecka, along with two others, both being male, one had blood red hair with blue eyes, and the other had blue hair with red eyes, and they looked rather similar, siblings maybe?

She looks at their names, Matthew and Vincent Holt, so they were siblings.

"Hey, so you're the one that started the first hunt?" Matthew, the red head, asked her, so she nods, "Yes, that would be me." he walks up to her, "Pleasure to meet you, names Matthew, but you probably read it already, and that's my brother Vincent, don't mind him, he's a little anti-social around new people."

She nods, "My name is Artoria, as you probably read or heard before, nice to meet you." she does a small bow to them, "May I ask why you are here?" she looks at them, "Ah, well we were interested in the idea of hunting monsters, and we're both friends with Micheal here, when we brought it up he mentioned how you lead a team of three into a dungeon, we're here to offer our services to you to give you more fire power."

Artoria thinks for a moment, "Alright, what roles do you two think you can fill."

Matthew goes first, "Well, I'd be pretty confident in my DPS, while my brother would be a good range fighter." Artoria nods, "So a Magic Caster, Tank, DPS, Stealth and Range... That's the making of a strong party once we gain levels..." she shrugs.

"Alright, let's do it, I'll see about finding a higher level dungeon so we get more EXP and cash out of it." Micheal and Rebecka nod, but Matthew and Vincent didn't look too sure, Micheal pats Vincent on the back, "It'll be fine you two, we'll be there to protect you should things go south."

That seemed to calm them down abit, "Alright, anyone here have a time after school they have to get home by?" They all look unnerved, and she figured out they all got picked up after school.

"Alright, can you message your parents to tell them... you're going to a friends place or something and we can go hunting for an hour and a half?" they would find a higher level dungeon, so she didn't think it would take too long to get everyone a few levels, with Equal Distribution on it would be easy for Matthew and Vincent.

They go through the school day, at break they figure out what weapons would the two new members of their hunting party would have.

Matthew wanted to go fist only, but Artoria told him that would be an easy way to get killed, go with gauntlets to increase fist strength instead, and Vincent wanted a sniper, which seemed fine as he was gonna get a magic one like Artoria's Pistol from the first dungeon.

So after school, the five got changed into clothes they stored in their inventory and walk with Artoria leading the way to a Mcdonald's with a portal nearby, they walk up and saw Lelin talking to some people, she turns and see's them, before turning back to her current conversation, "Sorry, you mind if I put the question's on hold for a moment?" the man with glasses nods to her.

Lelin turns to face the five, "If it isn't my three favourite customers! And I see you brought some extra's with you this time?" Artoria nods, "Yeah, so what's the basic?" Lelin smiles at Artoria's blunt tone.

"Level 10 Recommended, It's a castle this time and the Monster type is undead." 'Oh joy, Zombies...' Micheal muttered out, "Is there a chance we can get infected?" Lelin shakes her head, "No, the Game Master may be unfair at times, but he isn't sadistic, so you don't have to worry about becoming zombies."

Artoria nods, "That's good to know at least. What can I buy with three hundred dollars?" Lelin thinks, "Well, The price of a permanent common weapon is a 100 to a 150, so you could probably buy an uncommon permanent weapon." Artoria raises a brow, "What's the difference?"

"Well, since you use Magic Pistol's, I'll just tell you the difference for those, Uncommon Magic Pistols deal 12 damage per MP used in a shot instead of the 10 from the Common ones, they also do different things like spiral shots, or elemental boost with damage, stuff like that." Artoria thinks for a minute, "I'll buy one with an Elemental boost to fire." she nods before going under and pulling out a glock, but the slider was coloured red instead of black like the rest of the pistol.

"Alright, this will give a nice 25% boost to all fire based damage dealt with the bullets, just like you wanted." Artoria nods before asking how much it would be, "Hmm... how about 250? seems fair?" she thinks for a moment before speaking, "How about 240, Plus I pay for two rental's ahead of time?" Lelin thinks for a moment before shrugging, "Sure, why not? The total is 280, what rental's you looking for?"

After getting a pair of gauntlets and a sniper for Matthew and Vincent, Micheal and Rebecka get the same rentals as before, "Alright, Happy hunting~!" she turns back to the man with glasses, "So what was that about closing shop...?" An evil glint could be seen in her eyes while staring at the man, the five just choice to ignore it and form a party.

"Alright, we're all in, ready to go?" the four nods to her question before they step into the portal.

They find themselves at a castle entrance, Artoria pulled her gun and shot at the staircase with 30 MP, dealing 360 damage and blowing the brains out of a zombie, "Sorry, just wanted it dead." they hear groaning, meaning the zombies had good hearing, and they decided to get ready, Rebecka sneaking around with her knife, Micheal and Matthew on the front lines slashing or punching zombies, Artoria took aim from afar while Vincent used his sniper as far back as he could to gun them down.

After about two minutes the horde stops, "Alright... I'm sorry." Artoria manages while panting, she used alot of MP just then, Matthew calls out, "Yeah, that was on you." making Artoria sigh before she goes over to the pile of bodies and harvest the zombies.

**Harvested [25] Zombies 25 3,750 EXP (1/5: 750 EXP), 5 Zombie Teeth.**

**You've levelled up**

She looks at the notification before speaking, "gross." getting an all around agreement, she checks on Matthew and Vincent, who were both level 4 and 250 EXP away from level five.

"Well, not even five minutes in and you two are already at half our level, this should be easy to get us all to level 10 by the end of the hour."

So about 30 minutes later, and alot of harvested zombies later, they gained a total of 15,000 EXP, which gave each of them a total of 3,000 EXP, getting Artoria, Micheal and Rebecka to level 10, and Matthew and Vincent to l level 9, so the five were happy with that they go so far, minus the fact they got alot of Zombie Teeth and Flesh.

They look at the giant door in though, "Should we...?" Micheal asked, Artoria speaks up, "Well, last time we did we nearly got ourselves killed, but it's five of us now with two range and two melees and one going for the back stab, so we may be able to handle it."

With that, everyone agrees before going in.

It was similar to the last boss room, but this time it was a giant... skeleton in robes? Named 'Necromancer'...

"Shit, everyone make sure it doesn't cast a spell!" They nod while the three melee fighters rush in while Artoria and Vincent shoot from afar.

After a moment a small army of zombies appears, "Damn it, kill the Necromancer and the zombie's may disappear!" Vincent got the message and took aim with his sniper, and decided to flood it with his MP and fired, blowing the head off the necromancer completely and the zombie minions disappearing.

"Eh...?" Artoria was confused and turned back to Vincent, "Well, you wanted it dead, right?" he shrugs, "And I just did what you told us in your first boss battle. And I've now come to the realisation that guns are over powered just like they are normally." he inspects his gun, "Plus, I had a good 200 MP left, and each MP equals 25 damage wise, so it gave me an easy 5,000 damage to instantly kill the boss."

Everyone nods, "Yeah... I'm just gonna say that's bullshit." Matthew pipes up in a deadpanned tone, "Hey, you're the one that wanted to punch things to death." after that, the two get's weapon proficiency like the other three got from the Rat King, and they harvest the Necromancer, giving 5,000 EXP total, giving each 1,000 and a level up

"Let's see... Necromancer's Robes and a Necronomicon? You want them Vincent?" he shrugs, "Neither really, but how much do you think the book is worth?" Artoria thinks for a moment, "Probably a couple hundred, as it is a boss drop."

He nods, "Alright, let's leave." they nod and walk to the exit of the dungeon.

Once outside, they go and hand back the rental weapons and exchange the Zombie Teeth and Flesh for cash.

Artoria had 20 Teeth and 10 Flesh, the Teeth went for 3 dollars while the flesh went for 6, giving her a total of 120 from the materials along, She pulls out the Necromancer Robes and ask how much it would go for.

"Hmm... probably around 250 honestly, you looking to sell it?" she looks at her party members and they shrug, she turns back and speak, "Yeah sure, split it among my party please." she nods and gives them all $50.

"Anything else?" Artoria pulls out the Necronomicon, "Yeah, how much is this." Lelin stares at it for a moment before taking out a phone, "Hold on a moment, I need to make a call." she calls a number and talks to someone who sounded male over the phone.

After abit she puts it down and sighs, "That is meant to be a near end game item, but you somehow got it so early even my boss doesn't know how, but as it's end game, it'll sell for alot, so I'll have to ask you to pick who gets the cash before I tell you."

Artoria shrugs, "All five of us, cause if it's too much we'll probably just spread it across the five of us anyways." she nods before snapping her fingers, the Necronomicon appears in her hand and she puts it away, "check your money and don't say a word.

Artoria does so and does a double take at the money she has.

**Money: $200,205**

"What the fuck...?" Vincent mutters as he looks in shock at the money he just got.

"So, considering the amount of money you have, I feel like I need to ask you this, lookin' tha buy anything?" they all think for a moment before deciding they'll all spend half of what they just earned at most, namely getting OP weapons.

Artoria got a gun that seemed to be a dragon skull on a pistol, it was coloured white as bone with the eyes having red gems in them.

Micheal got a sword and shield combo that was themed on Dragons, (It seems the gear that cost 50,000 a weapon was dragon themed), with a dragon skull as the shield and another skill as the cross-guard of the sword.

Rebecka got two daggers, each at 25,000, and had snakes as the cross-guard, and they had a poison affect.

Matthew got the gauntlet versions of Rebecka's daggers because of the cost for two.

And Vincent, at a total of 75,000 got a Dragon Sniper, as it was much more powerful then most weapons it costed more.

They all were thinking on what else to get, because they couldn't think of anything, but then Artoria spoke up, "Do you sell skills? or maybe Skill books?" Lelin looks at her for a moment before nodding, "Yeah, however they are really expensive, you'll have to eat into your other half if you want any." she was referring to their money, meaning skills cost more then $50,000.

"Alright, let's see what you have." A menu appeared in front of Artoria, "use that to search the catalogue, we'll be here all day otherwise."

After looking for a good ten minutes before finding an item call 'Forced Racial Advancement', when she reads the item description she finds that it'll skip the quest for someone to advance their race to the next rank, which would be insanely useful to her so she buys it, costing 125,000 but it was totally worth it in the long run.

"Any accessories that boost stats or skills?" Lelin shakes her head, "Nope, those have to be crafted and sold to me before I can sell em." Artoria shrugs, "What about armour enhancing stats?" she shake she head again, "second verse same as the first."

She sighs before waving Lelin goodbye and walking off, "What did you buy?" Artoria smiles, "You'll have to find out later." Namely when she figures out when she can advance.

After that, the five split off and head home, after dinner each of them did their own training, but Artoria focused on Mana Affinity again since she could do it while resting, getting it to level 17, giving her a max of 1,500 MP and 111 MP per minute on her regen.

She woke up the next day and repeated the morning exercise, getting into a sports uniform, before telling her mom she'll walk to school.

By walk she meant jump across the roof tops until she reached school, which actually only took about 30 seconds, but she got alot of weird stares from people who spotted her jumping to school.

Once she got there she met up with her friends, who greeted her happily, they hang out for abit before suddenly a group of people, probably in the same grade, their levels were... average of 15, so they were stronger then them.

"Oi, Pip-squeak." Artoria and her friends look at each other before Artoria points to herself having realised she was the shortest there, "Yes you, Idiot." Artoria looked at the person calling her an idiot, level 18, it was only the third day the game began, if he spent all his time levelling up it seemed feasible.

However, she could tell he didn't get stats per level up, so this would be easy.

She walks up to him and looks up, "Yes, do you need something?" the boy grins before trying to throw a punch, which she side stepped as it was rather slow, she pulled her gun out of her inventory and aimed at his head, making everyone freeze.

"This does 40 damage per MP I put into a shot, mind telling me how much HP you have so I don't kill you?" he growls slightly before trying to hit her and take the gun, failing both as Artoria was much faster then him.

Suddenly Rebecka was behind him with two daggers by his throat, Micheal walked over with his sword in hand, Vincent had his Sniper on them and Matthew equipped his gauntlets.

Artoria took aim at him for a moment, "Actually, why not just tell me your Vitality?" he glares at her before growling out the number '25'.

"Hmm... so you have a total of one thousand one hundred and fifty HP? That is unless you have a skill that boosts HP." she says with a levelled tone while Micheal speaks in an angry tone, "You tried to hurt our leader, so it's fine if we hurt you back, right?" Artoria looked as all her friends were ready to injure him, so she lowers her gun, "Alright you four, let's not kill them, Unlike Vincent and I, you can't effectively control how much damage you all do."

They grumble before putting their weapons away, the person they restrained went for Artoria, but she raised her hand and caught his fist, shocking him, "Ah, so you have less then 30 strength? I'd say about 25 or 20." she punched him in the stomach, "You should get a skill in defensive, makes you more tanky." he coughs as his backs away from her.

"Damn brat... Let's go, we'll deal with them later." both him and his little posse stalk off.

"Well... That was eventful." Artoria blandly says, getting deadpanned stares from her friends.

The bell goes and the five go to class, their class did the normal attendance and general news going on in the school as it was home room, soon they'll have to leave for their first class, which would be English.

It was the second day, and Artoria already didn't like the English teacher, she sounded too pretentious.

As the bell goes once more, they go to English.

Once inside they sit down and get their books out, they were learning about proper grammar, jeez it's like their teacher thinks they're little kids.

About halfway through the lesson someone got board, so they crushed some paper into a ball and threw it at some, who retaliated but hit the wrong person, this continued for about 15 seconds before the stronger people got on board and everyone was throwing paper around, there was even a Notification.

**[Event Quest] Paper fight!  
****BIO: Someone started a paper ball fight in class, now everyone is involved.**

**Objective: Don't get hit and hit other players**

**Penalty: Get hit**

**Reward: Each hit rewards 10 EXP, each hit takes 10 EXP (Cannot go negative)**

Artoria shrugs before manipulating her mana to surround a few sheets of paper to crush them and launch them at unsuspecting victims, getting her an easy twelve hits.

She gets hit in the back of the head and dodge to the side of avoid a hail of balls from Micheal, who was grinning, and pulled out his shield, "Oh, that is _not_ fair!" one of the kids called out when they noticed the shield.

This chaos continued despite the teachers pleading them to stop, and after ten minutes they got a notification.

**The Event Quest is over, now announcing the winners**

**1st. Artoria Bell - 89 hits**

**2nd. Rebecka Green - 77 hits**

**3rd. Micheal Knight - 60 hits**

Artoria looks at her EXP, only 40 until the next level.

She noticed some people were laughing at other peoples score because they got target by the winners, so she spoke up, "Actually, only you were the ones picking on the weak, as we only picked on you." it was true too, she targeted the middle ground, as did her friends.

"You're all getting detention..." The teacher says, making some people groan and some laugh at the state the teacher was in, as she was buried in paper balls.

After class they had another one, which was... Maths, so they'd have to deal with that and then figure out how to get out of detention.

Maths was simple, painfully so as Artoria figured everything out and was the smartest in the class at the moment, which didn't surprise her as she had over 50 INT, but no interesting events occurred, so now it was break time, and Rebecka was helping her friends escape from detention.

And to do so, they just hung out on a roof for the whole break, it was warm and peaceful, once the bell rang they went to class, which they had different classes, Micheal and Vincent had Music, Rebecka and Matthew had Drama, and Artoria was all alone in IDMT.

She didn't pay anyone any attention, despite all the stares from the boys, and finished all her work, so she did the logical thing...

Sign into a school allowed website and play games for the next 20 minutes until class ended.

Once it ends she signs out of the computer and go hang out with her friends until their last class today.

When the bell went they casually walked to sports, but halfway there Artoria realised something, "Wait, isn't sports going to be really one sided since since some people have gone hunting while others haven't?" her friends think for a moment before agreeing with her and wondering what the school was going to do about it.

Once they arrive they wait with their fellow classmates and after abit the sports teacher comes up, Artoria notices his level was 5, meaning he's either done some quest or went hunting.

"Alright Class, instead of the normal sports, I've been tasked with figuring out how the hell to make this fair for those who do and don't hunt monsters." ah, a blunt teacher, this could be fun.

"So, those who aren't monster hunters, you'll pretty much do normal stuff, we've figured that much out. However none of the staff has any idea what to do with anyone whose basically superhuman, and the only reason why I'm level 5, as you see above me, is because I went to a dungeon to do some basic leveling to figure out how stats actually affect the human body."

He takes a breath, "So, those who are Hunters, go form a group over their, and my assistant will watch over everyone else as they use the Gym." he points towards the field and Artoria's group plus a few others walk over to it.

After abit he comes over, "Alright, so we're gonna do a bunch of test to figure out the rough average of all of you. After that, you're all free to vote for what we do for sports." they nod in agreement.

They get a quest notification about ranking, just to motivate them to do their best.

They do a 50 meters, 100 meters, and 500 meter run, which the ones with High DEX completed with no problem full out sprinting while the rest ran slightly faster then a jog.

They do a 'how many push ups can one do in a single set?' exercise, Artoria got to 320 before her arms started giving out, so it was probably tied to VIT and how well or fast one can do them is STR.

Next was standing long jump, which Artoria, being the only one with long jumping training since she did it this morning, got first place in.

Now high Jump, which alot of people got hurt in, cause it was simple to go up... down not so much.

After that, grip strength, which alot of the more buff students broke the machines provided, Micheal and Matthew included.

And now it was the last test, the teacher sighed, "Alright, by law I have to make sure I get this right, so we'll do this, Those who are skilled in magic, step forward." Artoria, Vincent and a few others step forward.

"Alright, unassisted by items, give your best magic spell you can make." one by one, the students tried and only few succeeded to make spells for combat, then it was Artoria's turn, "Alright, you're lucky last, let's see what you got." she nods to the teacher before holding her hand up, she forms a ball of mana into her hand and begins feeding it, after abit it was about the size of her body so she decides that was enough size wise, so she adds a spin to it, and the force was enough to blow a few unprepared people back.

"Okay, OKAY! That's good enough!" the ball of spinning mana shrinks and fades away, everyone looked at her in shock, "hey Artoria, what's your Intelligence at?" she tilts her head slightly, "above 50, why?"

...

"I'm not gonna even ask..." he sighs before talking to everyone about what they can vote for while Artoria looks at her Mana Manipulation skill, which just sky rocketed to level 14 after that stunt.

_'I see, so the more complex, the more rewarding it will_ be.' she get's lost in thought for abit before she got tapped on the shoulder, "Hey, Artoria, we're at a tie breaker right now, so would you mind deciding what we do?" she looks at Micheal in confusion, then explains she was lost in thought and needed an update on what's happening.

"Well, there's nine of us here, Me, Rebecka, Matthew and Vincent all voted for battle training, while those four, their names are James, Katelyn, Josh and Hayden by the way, all voted to train certain skills." Artoria tilts her head in thought before speaking.

"Well, why not do both? Skill training would fall flat without practice, and just battle training would be dull if we didn't learn new skills to surprise our opponents." they all stare at her before all nodding and telling the teacher, he sighs and mutters 'I'm gonna have to make a whole curriculum for this...'

After that, the bell went and school ended, they decided not to go hunting today and instead go home and train, Artoria really just wanted to spam level Mana Affinity.

* * *

Next time on The World of Games  
_"Hey, did you guy's know I'm not human?"_

_"Jeez, looks like you need my help."_

_"Bye Bye~"_

* * *

**Stats**

**Name: Artoria Bell  
Level: 11 (40 EXP to Level Up)  
Title: [None]  
Race: Lesser Demon**

**HP: 870/870  
HPR: 27.8 HP/m****  
MP: 1,500/1,500  
MPR: 111 MP/m**

**STR: 30  
VIT: 32  
DEX: 30  
INT: 57  
WIS: 40  
LUCK: 10**

**Elemental Affinity  
Fire: 10**

**Points: 20  
Money: $25,205**

**Traits**

**[Genius - Rank: 4 - Trait]  
The player starts with 15 INT and 20 WIS, and will gain 3 INT and 2 WIS per level**

**[Lesser Demon - Rank: 1 - Racial Trait]  
The player gains two extra Skill Slots at beginning, and gains 2 STR and VIT per level.  
(Automatically gives Skills: [Demon Form] & [Mana Affinty]**

**Equipment**

**[Dragon Flame Magic-Pistol - Rarity: Legendary]  
****A Handgun with the power of a fire dragon within.  
****\- 1 MP = 40 Damage  
\- +75% Effectiveness with fire  
****Cost: Varies**

**Skills**

**[Demon Form (Active) LV1 0.00%]  
Transforms the user into a demonic version of themselves, strengthening them physically  
\- +1 STR  
\- +2 VIT  
\- +1 DEX  
Cost: 100 MP per second**

**[Handgun Proficiency (Passive) LV5 12.93%]  
Increases the user's proficiency with Handguns  
\- +10% Accuracy with Handguns  
\- +20% Damage with Handguns**

**[Mana Affinity (Passive) LV17 23.25%]  
A skill that allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it better.**  
**\- +85% increase in MP recovery rate.**  
**\- +34% increase in total MP amount.**  
**\- +34% increase in magic attack.**  
**\- +34% increase in magic defence.**  
**\- +170% increase in MP related skill effects.**

**[Mana Manipulation (Active) LV14 45.72%]  
Allows the user to manipulate their mana into attacks or defense  
\- +46% increase to Magic Attack/Defence  
Cost: Varies**

**[Fire Manipulation (Active) LV1 32.00%]  
Allows the user to transform their mana into fire for multiple uses  
\- +20% Effectiveness with Fire  
\- +1% Resistance to Fire  
Cost: Varies**


	3. The First Step

**A/N: Yet another chapter for 'The World of Games', Wooo.**

**PanKeRio: Thanks! Also, I have _something_ for the luck much later on, but don't worry about it. and yes, the rich and sponsored do get the better equipment, but the rich would either not want to hunt monsters, or at this point in time, sponsoring hunters wouldn't be beneficial.**

**Mynameiszake: No problem, and thanks for the review.**

**MINI-Toepunt: Thanks! And yes, the second chapter did come out much quicker compared to my normal stories because well... someone said 'hope it will be updated this sunday' (PanKeRio, looking at you), and I didn't want to disappoint, so I worked on it and uploaded it on Sunday.**

* * *

Last time on The World of Games  
_"Well, why not do both? Skill training would fall flat without practice, and just battle training would be dull if we didn't learn new skills to surprise our opponents." they all stare at her before all nodding and telling the teacher, he sighs and mutters 'I'm gonna have to make a whole curriculum for this...'_

_After that, the bell went and school ended, they decided not to go hunting today and instead go home and train, Artoria really just wanted to spam level Mana Affinity._

* * *

Chapter 3: The First Step

* * *

After the events on Tuesday, they decided a weekly plan, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday they would go hunting and on Tuesday and Thursdays they would go home to train.

The weekly school plan sports wise was training on Tuesday and Wednesdays and a small tournament on Friday.

It was Saturday now, and all five members of Artorias group reached level 24, Artoria managed to level Mana Affinity to level 40, Handgun Proficiency to 25, Mana and Fire Manipulation both to level 50.

She also picked up a new skill, her fourth official skill as she didn't count her racial skills, and it was much more taxing to use compared to Mana or Fire.

She had gain control over Gravity, and she had it at level 10 since it was hard to get a massive boost like her mana or fire skill.

As of right now, Artoria was heading to a dungeon to meet up with her friends, it was currently 9 in the morning and they were gonna focus completely on grinding levels for all of Saturday and Sunday, their goal was for all five to be level 30 to 40 by the end of it.

Once she got there, she met up and partied up with her friends and gets the info of the dungeon, it was recommended level 20, a Forest with beast in it.

So they enter and got ready, Matthew and Micheal dealt with most of the fodder while Artoria and Vincent dealt with the ranged enemies, and Rebecka was off exploring and gathering info on where the boss was and occasionally killing and harvesting some wolves and bugs she found along the way.

After about twenty minutes, they find the boss which Artoria said she wanted to try soloing it, which they agree with but say they'll step in if needed.

She walks towards a giant wolf, who had the name Fenrir, a legendary creature in fantasy games, it charged at her, faster then she could move to dodge, so she aimed and shot the beast before adding 20 points from her 90 in storage to AGI, after a few dodges she figures out that the wolf had somewhere around 40 to 45 AGI.

She puts her gun in her inventory and raised a fist and swung at the jaw of the beast, the force knocking it back and staggering it, she continued punching it for a few hits only to see it wasn't dealing alot of damage, so she decides to get her gun out and shot at it's ankle with 1 MP.

_'That did less then a percent of it's health, so I'd need to spend more then a thousand MP to kill it in one shot.'_ she held her hand up and formed a sphere of fire and threw it towards, dealing a good 5% of the HP bar.

She grins before putting her pistol away and holding both her hands to the side.

She spends a total of 2,000 MP, 1,000 for each hand, and two massive balls of flames formed in each hand, which started to spin at an exceedingly fast rate, the beast was rushing towards her, so she grinned as she condensed the flames to fit into her hands before jumping up, the beast stopped and looked up as she forcefully combined the two spinning flames and suddenly the temperature was rising.

Artoria's friends seemed to get the memo but the Fenrir didn't, as a moment later it was disintergrated by a pillar of flames being shot down on it.

They harvest it and get a level up to level 27!

After abit they were walking back to the exit talking, "I still can't believe that Mana and Fire manipulation combined can be such a broken skill set." Micheal sighs, "Although, I think we all could've taken that thing solo, it would take different amounts of time, but we'd manage."

Artoria nods, "Yeah, honestly? I believe we can all solo a level 15 to 20 dungeon now." they continue talking before they find the exit to the dungeon, they go to sell their materials to Lelin, they each got around five thousand for it.

"Also, Red Eyes, mind if I talk to you for a moment?" Artoria looks confused but went over to her, "I see you got to level 25, congrats. Listen, you now meet the required level to do a Racial Advancement, however you haven't met the Stat or Skill requirement for it. If you want, for a small fee I can tell you those requirements so you can work towards it."

Artoria thinks for a moment, "How much?" Lelin seems to think for a moment, "5K for stats and 10K for skills?" Artoria looks for a moment, "I'm sure the stat one can go lower, how about 3K?" Lelin thinks on it for a moment before agreeing, Artoria pays 13K dollars and get the info needed.

"Stat wise, you're really close actually, Vitality, Dexterity and Strength all need to be above 75, your Intelligence and Wisdon already meet the requirement, and you need 25 Luck." Artoria nods, that was simple enough, infact she could probably get to it now if she spent her spare stat points.

"And the skills?" Lelin smiles, "Mana Affinity level 50 and Demon Form level 25, I'd suggest actually training that skill if you want to advance soon." The red eye gamer nods, "Thanks for the info... a question though - completely unrelated to my racial trait - How would one go about upgrading Genius Rank 4 to the next rank?"

Lelin tilts her head and puts a finger on her cheek in thought, "Um... that info'll cost around 10K? but since you're my favourite customer, I'll bump it down to 8K." Artoria sighs while paying her another eight thousand dollars.

"You'll need Intelligence 100 and Wisdom 75 plus a Trait Advancement book." Artoria looks at her before asking for one, which only costed about 25K, so she buys one to use it later.

She goes back over to her friends, "What'd Lelin want to talk about?" Matthew asked in a curious tone, "Oh, just an item offer and some info I needed." she smiled back at them, before they head off to a level 35 dungeon.

On the way their, she secretly boosts her INT to 100, and WIS to 75 and uses the book to advance Genius to Super Genius.

How'd they find the dungeon? Well it seemed that a group was made on Discord for people who hunt monsters, it had a bunch of dungeon locations, monster info, just about anything someone could be looking for.

* * *

Over the weekend, they cleared a total of 14 dungeons, and they were all level 42, and wow levelling got hard after level 35.

After they reached level 42 they decided that it was time they stopped hunting for the weekend and went home to train, which Artoria took advantage of to train Mana Affinity to level 50, and it was now around 8 PM on Sunday night, so she decided for the first time since getting the skill, she'll use Demon Form.

She goes up to her mirror and takes in a breath and uses a mental trigger to activate the skill, she looks as her skin seems to go darker, her hair seemed to have an odd spikiness to it but also flow with the mana she was using, the whites of her eyes turned black and her red eyes seemed to glow now, she opened her mouth to see her teeth had become jagged like a sharks teeth.

"So... this is my demon form...?" she turns around while looking in the mirror to see if anything else was different, after not finding anything she looked at her MP, "Hmm... I probably only have around two minutes and twenty seconds left, might as well wait it out."

After waiting to run dry on MP and forcefully exited Demon Form, she checks the skill.

**[Demon Form (Active) LV6 93.23%]  
Transforms the user into a demonic version of themselves, strengthening them physically  
\- +6 STR  
\- +12 VIT  
\- +6 DEX  
Cost: 97 MP per second**

_'Hmm... The the stats go up per level, one STR and DEX and two VIT per level, at level a hundred that'll be rather... mundane... Maybe it'll get better if I get a Racial Rank Up?'_ she sighs as within less then three minutes her MP fully recharged.

"Whelp, Time to grind..."

* * *

About two hours later the skill was at level 25 (Fucking finally), and she was now eligible for the rank up, but decides to hold off it for now, since she doesn't know what will happen if she does so, for all she knows she could stop looking human and will have to explain it to her friends.

So now she was at the point of, should she do it or should she not do it, so she decides she'll try to bring it up during the morning time at school tomorrow with her friends...

But for now, Mana affinity training...

* * *

Maybe she should stop training Mana Affinity... as it's level 60 now...

She sighs as she starts making her way to school after getting changed, she arrives after about 30 seconds and goes to meet her friends.

"Hey guys." she waves at them and they wave back, she started to think on how to bring this up... better be blunt with this group of people.

"Hey, did you guy's know I'm not human?" _'Please work.'_

"Huh, really?"

"Neat."

"Cool."

...

"WAIT WHAT?!" there it is...

"What do you mean by that, you look human." Micheal says while staring at her, "Well... Minus red eyes and white hair..." she shrugs, "Well... I dunno how but when I did the Character Creation, I got the option to pick fictional races." they looked confused, "What, like angels and demons?"

Artoria decides to stay silent, making Matthew's eyes widen, "No way..." and he grins, "You're a Demon, aren't cha?" he laughs slightly while patting her on the back, "I'm guessing you were too afraid to mention it before now, right?" she decides to only nod, making them understand.

"Come on Leader, there's no way I'd turn my back on the one who saved both mine and Rebecka's lives." Micheal says with a smile, Rebecka nods with him.

"Hey, I'm an open minded guy, I don't really care if you were angel, demon or something else, you're still our friend." Matthew gives her a thumbs up, Artoria looks at Vincent, who just shrugs, "I couldn't care less about what you are really..."

Artoria stays silent for a moment before she felt tears going down the side of her cheeks, "Thanks..." she smiles at them, and then Micheal starts fusing about her not needing to cry or anything, making her laugh.

After abit of talking Micheal speaks up, "But what brought this up? You could of just stayed silent about it." Artoria scratches the back of her head.

"Well, I met the requirements to do a Racial Advancement, which I think would of made me look slightly demon like, so I wanted to know what you four thought before I did it." he nods, it was a reasonable reason to do so.

"Alright, could you do it now?" She nods and pulls out the book she got from Lelin and it disappears in a flash of light, which covered all of Artoria and once it fades Artoria sat there with nothing really changed minus two horns slightly above and behind her ears they pointed upwards with an inward curvy, the horns where pitch black.

She instantly got uncomfortable and stood up and all of the sudden a tail came out from under her shirt, it seemed like it could of been used to stab someone with how sharp the tip of it looked.

...

"Huh..." she simply says while reaching up to touch her horns, "Okay.. I can actually feel that." she looked down at her newly acquired tail and see it moving slightly, as if swaying.

She reaches into her inventory and pulls out her lunch box, which had an apple in it she pulled out and put the rest back in her inventory, she places the apple on the ground and tried willing her tail to stab it, which it did.

She slowly lifts it up to her mouth and takes a bite out of the apple before slinging the apple into the air with her tail, and once it came back down she used her tail to slice the apple in two horizontally.

_'And I no longer need to raise my hands to fight someone...'_ she sighs while her friends clapped, "Wow, you already got a good handle on your new tail." Matthew states while walking up to it and poking the tail, making it flinch and move away from it while Artoria's breath hitched.

"Guessing it doesn't feel nice for it to be unwillingly touched?" she just nods while looking away, after that the bell went and they head to class.

She got alot of odd stares throughout the day, but ignored them for the most part, expect during Media, which those bullies from last week decided to have another go, the leader pulling on her horn, "Damn, you decided to become a freak now?" Artoria looks at him without turning her hand before her tail goes up and wraps around his wrist, _'Huh, guessing that since it's apart of me it's just as strong as I am.'_

"What the he- These are real?!" he asked in shock before his eyes widen as he couldn't move his hand out of the grip and saw the sharp end of the tail, which looked like a knife, Artoria looks at him for a moment before speaking, "Yeah, what about it?" he gulps as the blade on the tail lowers lightly against his wrist, "N-Nothing..." she let's him go and he goes back to his desk.

Artoria decides to get lost in her thoughts, _'It's been eight day's since everything became a game, and everyone seems to be adapting to it rather well, some people just go about their daily life while some decide to go hunting for either money or glory.'_ she sighs while playing around with a video editor since they were tasked to do so in class, _'And eight day's since I became a girl, and stopped being a human by blood, though I can definitely tell I think and feel human inside, that's just my mind telling me since I've been a human for 15 years of my life.'_ she stretches her arms abit.

_'Though honestly, I don't feel weird about being a girl, I don't get embarrassed looking at my own body, and I don't have any sexual thoughts about myself... I wonder why? Maybe the game has something to do with it?'_ she get's tapped on the shoulder and sees Micheal, "Hey, could you help me out?" she nods before getting up and going to his computer.

"Alright, what's the problem?" she asks him, "Well, I want to get a good lightning affect but I can't figure it out." Artoria sighs before going for a small quiz about what he wanted the lightning to do, just a single bolt rising up in the background and then flying to his hand, simple enough, only took her five minutes to do so.

"There, done." she goes back to her computer and plays around some more, they had a mini project which involved them recording one scene and editing it to make it look like it was from a trailer, which the teacher would then take and make a mini montage of all of them for the class to view, everyone with powers basically agreed to do a power up/getting ready for battle scene to make it look like they were going to war.

Artoria had an idea for hers, but she was gonna need to be very convincing that she edited it since if she used Demon Form for it alot of questions would be raised.

"I'm betting Artoria's is gonna be pathetic compared to mine." everyone looks at the bully, some where wondering what was wrong with him and others seemed to agree, since not alot of people liked her.

Artoria got an idea however, "Then how about we make a bet?" he looks at her, "Oh yeah, what kind of bet?" she smiles, "Well, simply which one of our parts is better? everyone in the class will vote for which they think is better and the loser gives the winner... fifty thousand dollars sound good?" everyone looks at her in shock, making her shrug, "What? I've got ninety thousand on me right now, so I can pay up, the question is... Can you?" she looks at Riley, which was the bully leaders name, who scoffs, "Of course I can."

Suddenly a quest popped up for the two, Artoria reads her out.

**[Event Duel Quest] A Battle of Film**

**BIO: Artoria has challenged Riley to a bet, by the end of the week both of them must present a [1 minute] clip to the Teacher about themselves, who will then share it with the class, who will vote on who the winner is.**

**Objectives:  
****1\. Record all footage needed  
****2\. Transport all footage onto a USB  
****3\. Edit video to completion  
****4\. Present video to the teacher on Friday**

**Fail Condition: Riley wins the bet**

**Reward: 20,000 EXP, $50,000, ?**

**Failure: -$50,000**

The two look at each other before grinning, before they say at the same time, "You're going down."

* * *

Rebecka had also not filmed yet, so Artoria and Rebecka helped each other filmed, since they both have insanely high DEX they could hold a camera perfectly, making the video flow better.

And the two decided to do a group project instead, The first half would be Rebecka's, filmed by Artoria and edited by Rebecka, and the second half would be vise versa.

They did all they required filming on Tuesday by going into a low level dungeon, and filming Rebecka fighting and (pretending) to loose, then Artoria coming in to save her, a reminder of the first dungeon they went into.

The editing took place over almost all of Wednesday and Thursday before they went to class on Friday to present their work.

"Alright Class, we'll go through the trailer I set up and after we'll view Riley's - as he was here before Artoria - and then watch Artoria's, after which we'll vote." the teacher says before loading up the first video, which was about two minutes and by the end of it Rebecka's played.

_"Alright, I need to get stronger for the war..." she says as she walks through a cavern while looking around, "Still can't believe everything is a game now, but here I am, finding giant rats to kill..." she spots some and dash forward and killing them with her dagger, "and that makes 40, I should probably go find the boss now." she walks off screen and the scene changes to a giant door._

_"So this is it, huh? Bigger then I thought." she pushes through the door and sees the Rat King on his throne, she rushes forward while the King does the same, she ducks under a swing and slices at it, after a few more exchanges she was knocked into a pillar and coughs up blood._

That part actually scared people since it looked real, but in reality it was just that Artoria and Rebecka were really good editors.

_She looked up to see the Axe of the king about to split her in two, went it was brought down the screen fades to black._

_"Jeez, looks like you need my help." and the scene ends._

"Was that... Artoria's voice at the end?" one of the students look at her, which she smiles, "Well, we did film together to got those moving shots while in combat."

"Alright, that was all the trailers, Rebecka, A+ for the fact you actually had a story to cap it off and made it an actual trailer." she smiles before the teacher puts Riley's on.

_A hand slams onto a table and the camera pans up to show Riley in armour, "Alright men, listen up, We have sworn loyalty to the protection of the civilians in the demon invasion happening soon, You've all have already been briefed on your missions and have your troops at the ready. So let's move out!" the four standing their salute to him, "SIR, YES SIR!" before moving out._

_Riley sighs into his hand, "alright, let's go..." he looks up and it perfectly lines up with a scene change to him being outside with his weapon ready, he points his sword forward before calling out "CHARGE!"_

_from just off camera hundreds of men in armour run off towards an army of demons also rushing forward._

_Riley is seen at the front, leading the charge and slaying demons left and right, he just manages to defeat a group of demons before looking up to see a giant demon with six wings and two sets of horns, "The Demon Lord shows themselves..." he yells out before rushing forward to face the demon lord, he jumps into the air and swings, the demon lord and him clash and a bright light takes over the screen._

_Once it fades it shows only The Demon lord and Riley damaged but alive, they rush towards each other one last time before clashing and passing each other, a second later the Demon lord falls to the ground._

_"Is it over..." Riley ask before falling forward and passing out._

_the screen turns black and fades back as Riley wake up in a hospital, a nurse came into the room and speaks, "We found you barely alive, thank you for your service protecting mankind against the demon invasion." she bows to him, "Unfortunately, you seemed to have an infection, but it should be nothing a few Antibiotics can't fix."_

_Riley nods to her before she leaves, he sighs before his eyes glow red, "Demon blood... huh?" and it ends there._

"And that was Riley's." everyone claps, it was a pretty good film honestly, but Artoria speaks up, "Isn't the film meant to be about ourselves? since it was such a large scale battle it was hard to focus on Riley during the video until it was just the Demon Lord and him, but I do agree that the story of what we see if well thought out and put together, if not redundant in Fantasy Media."

That caused some people to mutter and agree, the project was meant to be about the person in a fictional film they would create, but they didn't get alot of information about Riley in that short film other then that he lead an army and was strong enough to fight a demon lord.

"You're just jealous because it was better then yours." Riley states, Artoria looks at him for a moment before grinning, "Alright then, why don't we watch mine?"

The Teacher nods before playing the last video, which people noted the name of the video being 'Artoria's_Declaration_(Video)'.

_Rebecka looked up to see the Axe of the king about to split her in two, went it was brought down the screen fades to blade._

_"Jeez, looks like you need my help." the screen fades back to Rebecka's face, who looked up in shock, "A... A Demon...?" the screen changes to show Artoria holding the axe back with one hand and barely putting effort into it, "Alright kid, why don't you sit back and watch Artoria, the Demon Lord's General of Flame, do her job?" she increases the strength on her grip and the axe shatters in her hand before jumping up and dealing a swift kick to the chin while back-flipping, knocking the Rat King down._

_Once she lands her skill goes darker as the end of her black horns fade to red, the camera zooms up to her mouth and eyes, she opening grins showing serrated teeth like a shark and her eyes open, the whites of her eyes were black and she stands up fully, she holds the back of her neck and moves her head to crack her neck, the cracking noises audible through the cave._

_Two wings shoot out who back and she flaps them before flying forward, a spear of fire forming in her hand, "Burning Star Light!" She throws it and it impacts with the Rat King, destroying it._

_She walks back while exiting her Demon Form, "Hey kid, you alright?" she asked Rebecka, who nodded, "Th-Thank you for saving me." she shrug, "No problem, while I might detest humans, I'm not gonna let a kid die on my watch." she turns to her side and seemed to pull something invisible towards her, a giant rat was flying towards her, she raises her boot and stomps it down on the rat, not enough to kill but it traps the poor creature under her foot._

_She takes her gun out of her inventory, "I don't take kindly to being interrupted..." a menacing aura surrounds her as she takes aim, the screen shows a side view of her face, a flash of light under her and a sudden splatter of blood on her cheek appeared._

_She turns back to the now terrified Rebecka while retracting her aura and putting the gun away, "sorry, hate those little insects." Rebecka looked confused, "Their called monsters..."_

_"That's what I said, Insects." she sighs, Artoria gives her an appraising look, "Hey, tell me..." the screen cuts to black._

_"What do you say about a job opportunity?" and it ends there._

Everyone was silent before Micheal clapped, then Vincent and Matthew clapped, Rebecka clapped as well before almost everyone started clapping loudly.

The teacher begins speaking, "For the first time viewing it, it was amazing, you put together a coherent story about your character, and even showed her strength by having her easily handle something someone couldn't do, a personality befitting of her background as a demon and the progression of the video, and that it continued another persons video gave you some bonus points for creativity."

The teacher coughs slightly, "Now, why don't we vote, on Artoria's or Riley's video, which was better. Artoria?" He, along with around 14 people raises their hand, "And Riley." Four hands raises.

"Alright, Artoria wins the bet, so Riley, why don't you hold up your end of the bet?" he sighs before standing up and fishing $50,000 out of his inventory and giving it to Artoria.

**You got 20,000 EXP.**

**You've leveled up x4**

She smirks before they continue with the lesson, at the end of the day the five friends decide to go home, Artoria decides to train Mana Affinity as much as she could, getting level 75 on it, if she kept this up the skill will be maxed by the end of the weekend.

She decides to go to sleep, as it was about midnight after training, but that night she had the oddest dream, and possibly the scariest she had.

She saw herself in her demon from standing in a burning field of fire, with some kind of demonic armour over her body, and the version of herself was laughing like a maniac before turning to face her, an insane grin on her face before appearing right in front of her and having the barrel of her gun pointed at the real Artoria's head, _"Bye Bye~"_ and she wakes up as soon as the trigger was pulled and she found it was morning on a Saturday.

_'What... The hell just happened?'_

* * *

Next time on The World of Games  
_"O-oh hey Artoria! What are you doing here at this time?"_

_"I give up, I can't keep up with her."_

_"Oh hey Bro, weren't you asleep?"_

* * *

**Stats**

**Name: Artoria Bell  
Level: 46 (500 EXP to Level Up)  
Title: [None]  
Race: Greater Demon**

**HP: 1,780/1,780  
HPR: 103.2 HP/m  
MP: 7,700/7,700  
MPR: 3,234 MP/m**

**STR: 104  
VIT: 106  
DEX: 75  
INT: 195  
WIS: 132  
LUCK: 25**

**Elemental Affinity  
Fire: 25**

**Points: 120  
Money: $95,000**

**Traits**

**[Super Genius - Rank: 5 - Trait]  
The player ****has a perfect memory and ****will gain 5 INT and 3 WIS per level.**

**[Greater Demon - Rank: 2 - Racial Trait]  
The player gains an extra skill slot and gains 4 STR and VIT per level.  
Automatically gives Skill: [Demonic Aura]**

**Equipment**

**[Dragon Flame Magic-Pistol - Rarity: Legendary]  
A Handgun with the power of a fire dragon within.  
\- 1 MP = 40 Damage  
\- +75% Effectiveness with fire  
Cost: Varies**

**Skills**

**[Demon Form (Active) LV30 12.62%]  
Transforms the user into a demonic version of themselves, strengthening them physically  
\- +40 STR  
\- +80 VIT  
\- +40 DEX  
Cost: 75 MP per second**

**[Demonic Aura (Active) LV5 12.73%]  
****Strengthens the users body by flowing Demonic Aura through it.  
****\- +10% STR, DEX, VIT  
Cost: 240 MP per second**

**[Handgun Proficiency (Passive) LV35 62.18%]  
Increases the user's proficiency with Handguns  
\- +70% Accuracy with Handguns  
\- +140% Damage with Handguns**

**[Mana Affinity (Passive) LV60 82.94%]  
A skill that allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it better.**  
**\- +300% increase in MP recovery rate.**  
**\- +120% increase in total MP amount.**  
**\- +120% increase in magic attack.**  
**\- +120% increase in magic defence.**  
**\- +600% increase in MP related skill effects.**

**[Mana Manipulation (Active) LV50 18.21%]  
Allows the user to manipulate their mana into attacks or defense  
\- +120% increase to Magic Attack/Defence  
Cost: Varies**

**[Fire Manipulation (Active) LV50 12.00%]  
Allows the user to transform their mana into fire for multiple uses  
\- +120% Effectiveness with Fire  
\- +50% Resistance to Fire  
Cost: Varies**

**[Gravity Manipulation (Active) LV10 62.72%]  
****Allows the user to alter gravity with their mana  
****\- +40% Effectiveness with Gravity**


	4. Enter the Black Market

**A/N: No reviews**

**Feels bad man ;-;**

* * *

Last time on The World of Games  
_She saw herself in her demon from standing in a burning field of fire, with some kind of demonic armour over her body, and the version of herself was laughing like a maniac before turning to face her, an insane grin on her face before appearing right in front of her and having the barrel of her gun pointed at the real Artoria's head, "Bye Bye~" and she wakes up as soon as the trigger was pulled and she found it was morning on a Saturday._

_'What... The hell just happened?'_

* * *

**Chapter 4: Enter the Black Market**

* * *

It's been a few days since these nightmares seemed to have begun, and it was actually cutting into her sleeping pattern now, it was starting to get difficult to stay awake in classes as well.

It was actually worrying her friends quite abit but when they ask about it, Artoria seemed to forget everything pertaining to the nightmares and just says she's been up late recently and she's trying to fix it.

It was Thursday night at around 10 PM and Artoria decided to go out to one of the dungeons after sneaking out of her home.

She walks there at a slow pace, not really in the mood for running, once she gets there she sees Lelin walking to a young girl, around 13 years old if she had to guess and-

**Lunariet Cruorem LV0  
****Administrator  
****Princess of The Eternally Scarlet Moon **

_'Oh, it's another Admin, wonder what's she's doing here?'_ Artoria walks up to them while they talk, "I'm sorry Luna, but no one's been asking for a black market, so I can't tell them about your business unless they ask first."

"I understand that, however I am rather annoyed you've been getting all the customers and haven't even suggested any to come at night." Artoria reaches them but they don't seem to notice her.

"Well _I'm_ sorry I'm just following orders from the Boss."

"It wouldn't kill you to at least drop a hint."

"Nothing can kill me, or you for that matter, we're immortal."

"Uh...?" they turn to Artoria for a moment and Artoria gets to take in the appearance of Luna, her skin seemed porcelain, her hair was long, reaching just about below her waist, had big red eyes with a hint of silver at the bottom, she had a white shirt with frills in the middle where the buttons are and a black skirt once again with slight frills in silvery colour, Black thigh high stockings with red petals with silvery endings on its sides like on her mask, her outfit is complete with black pointy high heel boots.

She quickly grabs a mask from her inventory and puts it on, the whole mask is White with blood red petals with silver endings, they resemble tear drops in some places, its without a mouth and has only a tiny horizontal slash for each eye

Lelin speaks up, "O-oh hey Artoria! What are you doing here at this time?" the Greater demon shrugs, "No reason, came to clear my head and maybe talk to you, but I see you're busy..." she motions towards Lunariet, "want me to leave and come back?"

Lelin shakes her head, "Nope, you can actually fix this problem my little friend here is having." Artoria shrugs before turning to the young girl, who was probably older then she looked, "Alright then, I heard you're having trouble getting business?"

Lunariet nods, "Yes, this useless cat here hasn't been telling anyone about my Black Market, so I haven't gotten any business lately." she seemed to send a glare at Lelin, making her put her hands up in surrender, "I said I was sorry..."

"Not good enough." she looks back at Artoria, "are you looking to purchase anything possibly illegal? I can probably get it for you." Artoria thinks for a moment before asking for a list like Lelin had.

"We'll need to actually go to the Black Market, one moment." she turns around and bites her index finger, "Blood Gate." her blood flows out of her finger and forms a door, which opens and she walks through, which Artoria follows after her.

they were in some kind of dark basement, it had a lobby away, a few counters and a stage, plus a couple doors going off to some side rooms, "So what kind of items do you sell anyway? Just saying 'illegal items' doesn't really say much when I can buy a Sniper Rifle from Lelin."

The two walk over to the counter, "Well, we sell alot of things, but it's normally things that shouldn't belong to this world." Artoria raises a brow, "Do you mean stuff like blood vials of fantasy creatures? Cause we can't get stuff like that."

"Well, that's one of them, there's also Spirit Orbs, Game Breaking Items, and other stuff such as that." they get to the counter and a menu pops up, Artoria looks at it, "there's no price...?" Lunariet looks at her, "More often then not, a person pays with blood."

Artoria looks at her for a moment, "How much is Demon Blood...?" Luna looks up in thought for a moment, "The price is really dependant on the gender, strength, race, stats and level of the person the blood belonged to." Artoria nods, this sounded like an insane way to gain money, "If you're looking to cheat money out of me, then you're out of luck, I can only give money for a blood bag once a week per person. Bosses rules."

Damn, she knew what she was thinking, "So, anyway's mind explaining a few things about this place?" Artoria ask while looking through the menu, Luna nods before speaking, "As you see, we have the counters here for people to purchase items, usually if we have a rare specimen people may want to buy we hold a show on stage to show it off to get bidders, and the lobby area behind you is often used for trading, and also, it's legal to do anything in here you can even get away with murder if people outside don't find out."

Artoria grimaces slightly at the thought of a massacre happening, but finds an item called a 'Spirit Orb: Rat King', "What are Spirit Orbs?"

"Those are items that allow you to summon monsters, however if you aren't stronger then them they'll go on a rampage, the reason this is illegal is because you can summon them into the real world and not just dungeons, causing massive damage and killing possibly hundreds of non-hunters."

Artoria hums, "Does it grant experience when killing a summoned monster?" Luna looks at her for a moment, "yes, it does." Artoria nods, "Alright then, give me a moment."

She searches through it and puts five of each boss her and her friends have faced before into the cart, "How much would this cost?" she asked, which Luna checked the order and looked at it, "you paying with your own blood?" she shrugs, "don't really have anything else on me..."

Luna nods before leading her into the back, "Sit on this chair, I'll take care of the rest." Artoria nods before sitting down, Luna gets a few tools out, and three empty blood bags, "This should be enough..." she walks over to Artoria with a few needles, blood bags, and other tools needed, "This may feel weird."

Artoria doesn't flinch at all as the needle goes into her arm and starts to drain out her blood, "Normally, this would take about an hour and fifth-teen minutes per bag, however I've made it so it does so in 15 seconds." the blood bag was quickly being filled up, while is was doing that Luna decided to ask a very blunt question, "Are you a virgin?"

Artoria takes a fast intake of air and chokes on her own spit, after clearing her throat, "E-excuse me...?" they were finished with the first bag and were moving on to the next, "I asked if you were a virgin, it'll play a part in the price." she said it so casually, as if she didn't care she was asking a personal question, "Uh... I'm 15... it's illegal for me to have sex, so..."

"Alright, just making sure." they continue the process with the blood extraction.

After three bags being filled later, they complete the transaction and Luna takes the bags and puts them in her inventory, "Did you know that items are put in stasis while in your inventory?" Luna speaks up randomly while Artoria was recovering from the sudden blood drainage.

"Huh... Didn't know... that..." she rubs her head as she felt her body start to heat up, and suddenly she felt fine. which confused her, "Ah, you're not normally a demon, right. You're experiencing Blood Flow, it's in place for races with extraordinary healing to recover loss blood more quickly, and it doesn't even cut at your lifespan."

Artoria blinks, that was... rather useful, Luna speaks once more, "It normally takes about five minutes to fully take affect, so you can go rest in the lobby area, come see me when you want your items." Artoria nods before sitting down on a large couch.

After a few minutes she gets back up, completely fine and goes to the counter to get her items, "Hey, I'd like to ask, how much would my blood be worth?" that was a weird sentence to say, but Luna got what she meant.

"$50,000 a bag, at the moment anyways." Luna she stretches, "it's not often, but you're blood is very pure compared to most humans, you're female, a virgin, and a demon, Normally I'd pay abit extra, but it's your first time, so... no."

Artoria sighs while thinking, "So I gave you $150k dollars? But to my understanding these orbs doesn't cover the full price." she states while looking at them, Luna speaks up, "I run a black market, I've got to make a profit somehow." she shrugs.

Artoria gets an idea, "Hey, if I tell others about how to get access to the Black Market, could I get another item? It would increase how much you could possibly get every night, making you an over all profit."

Luna stays silent, most likely thinking about it for a moment, "Alright, fine." the menu pops up and Artoria scrolls through it for a moment before speaking, "you have a way to search items?" Luna nods, "I have to filter the search if you want something specific."

"Alright then, I'm looking for a left gauntlet, preferably one that covers my whole hand and forearm, and has claws on the end of the fingers." Luna looks confused but goes with it, after filtering the search she displays the prices, "you're limited to $40,000." Artoria nods before looking through the gauntlets for abit.

She finds one she was interested in.

**[Demonic Gauntlet Rarity: Heroic]  
****A left handed gauntlet that was made with demonic energy  
****-Can only be equipped by Demonic entities.  
****-+500 Slash damage with claws  
****-+300 Blunt damage with punch  
****-+200 Defence with blocking**

She looked at the price and it was $35,000, so she buys it and equips it to see how it feels.

The gauntlet was an ebony colour with a red inside, it seemed like the metal was design in a flame pattern going up the arm and at the ends of the fingers it had been sharped to be able to cut.

"Thanks for this, Luna." the possible thousand year old loli nods, "Nice doing business with you, Artoria." Artoria waves her goodbye before leaving through the door and finding herself back at the dungeon shop she met Luna at, Lelin was there sleeping, guess even immortals have to sleep some times... that or she's just lazy.

Artoria sighs before heading home and sneaking back into her room, and once more she had nightmares about herself.

* * *

Today was a sparing day at school, so everyone was getting ready to fight each other.

Artoria had told her friends about the black market and she even made an anonymous account on discord to post the information in the group for hunters, so she'll head there to see if people actually went tonight.

Artoria does up to the field and prepares herself, she wanted to go first so she'd have a chance to rest afterwards, she looks to see her opponent is Micheal for this match.

"Damn, didn't think we'd have to fight." he sighs, "I know I probably won't win this, but it can't hurt to try!" he gets his fist up in a boxing stance, Artoria sighs, "Let's just do this so I can sleep..." she holds one hand behind her with it's palm up and the other in front of her to assist in blocking.

The teacher calls the match to begin and the two rush forward, their fist meets in the middle and they hold they punch for a second, neither moving as they stared at each other.

A moment later they begin to exchange punch after punch, getting faster and faster as they continued, after a moment she noticed that Micheal wasn't able to go faster, so he must be limited in DEX compared to her...

She seems to become a blur and appear behind Micheal, he turns as fast as he could and barely blocks the punch to his head, but the punch was faster and stronger then he expected, causing him to get flung back and land on his back, he gets up and rubs his arm, "Damn, you can punch hard, Artoria." She smiles, "And you have excellent reaction time."

He shrugs before getting back into a boxing stance, "Alright, let's go another round." she nods before rushing forward, just before reaching him she ducks to avoid a punch to her head, making him move his other arm down to avoid a blow, but she turns into a blur again to get behind him, he turns to his left to try and block her, so she goes around his right to stay behind him, in his confusion in not seeing Artoria behind him she punches him in the back.

He coughs before falling to his knees and rubbing his back, "Damn, that hurt like hell." He raises his free hand, "I give up, I can't keep up with her." the two leaves the arena and sit down, Artoria fussing over his injures and apologising to him.

After abit everyone got a chance to fight but they were only half way through the lesson, so they didn't know what to do.

Artoria stands up and raises her hand, "I may have something we can do." she reaches into her inventory and pulls out an orb, which had a small version of the Rat King inside it, "These are Spirit Orbs, it allows someone to summon monsters they've fought in the past to fight once more, however unlike dungeons where you have to find them again, these can be summoned into the real world."

Of the 10 other people there, she caught the interest of everyone, "And where did you get such an Item?" the teacher asked her, making her slightly panic since if she said 'black market' she'll be in a deep mess.

"Uh... You'll have to ask Lelin about it yourself." he sighs before rolling with it,

Artoria nods before deciding to ask everyone to get into parties of two, each of Artoria's friends were with one of the other five kids in their class, so she gets paired with the last one, each group is given one of the five orbs for the Rat King.

Everyone fights it and kills it rather fast, namely Artoria who let her partner get a few attacks in before walking up to it and using her tail to slice it to pieces.

"That tail is so not fair..." Micheal mutters in annoyance.

**Harvested [BOSS] Rat King, 2,550 EXP (1/2: 1,275 EXP), 1 Rat King Pelt, 1 Rat King Axe.**

She turns around and gives the pelt and axe to her partner, "You need it much more then I probably do." he nods to her before putting it in his inventory to take it to Lelin later.

"Well, that was interesting but that only took 10 minutes." Artoria raises another orb, this time of the Necromancer, "I have another set of five." the teacher looks at her for a moment before sighing, "alright, we'll do that and then everyone can rest before going to lunch." she gives one of the orbs to each of the groups before she waits her turn.

When it was her turn to face it with her partner, she let her partner gain experience with fighting a large horde of monsters and making sure he doesn't die before aiming her gun and pumping 1,000 MP into a shot, dealing 40,000 Damage to the necromancer's head, killing it and all the zombies disappearing.

She harvests the boss and gets a pleasant surprise.

**Harvested [BOSS] Necromancer, 5,000 EXP (1/2: 2,500 EXP), 1 Necromancer's Robes, 1 Necronomicon**

_'Another Necronomicon?'_ she sighs in exasperation before handing the robes to her partner, "feel free to use that as you wish." he nods while she keeps the book, she was curious what was in it this time.

After that the bell goes and they head to lunch, they eat in quiet for awhile before Artoria asked them if they can just go home after this, they nod and after maths they leave.

Once she gets home she gets changed into a set of pajama's and she sits on her bed while pulling out the book and starting to read it.

It had alot of stuff in it, how to revive the dead, how to ascend mortality, a chant to prevent harmful powers against the user (that could be useful), mind transferring and a possible solution to telepathy.

All of that seemed pretty good to be honest, if it didn't have stuff like 'turning human's into deep ones' and 'creatures beyond the threshold of space', but she'll read this whole thing and try to understand it, how knows, maybe she'll get an interesting skill out of it.

After reading it for the whole afternoon she got a skill called 'Ancient Knowledge'.

**[Ancient Knowledge (Passive) LV1 0.00%]  
****A skill that shows your understand of the knowledge of old  
****-Able to remember 1% of the Necronomicon without needing to think about it.  
****-+1% INT  
-+0.5% WIS**

That skill will be instantly OP in future if she maxed it out, plus she wouldn't need the book any more if she remembered it all without needing to try and remember.

So instead of sleeping that night, she focused on meditation to train Mana Affinity and reading her book to gain a better understanding of it.

When the sun started to come up, she put the book away and yawned, today was Saturday so she'll just message her friends and say she'll come to hunting tomorrow, as she needed to sleep.

* * *

In her dream, she dreamt of a world on fire and massive creatures roaming the land and destroying everything, and she saw herself laughing while holding the Necronomicon.

She wakes up at midday and yawns, she had gotten used to the nightmares now after a week, they still made her tired but she didn't freak out anymore.

But she was confused as to why it was different, was it because of her new skill? Eh, it probably had no correlation, so she continued to study it all day while still training Mana Affinity since training both of these skills would benefit her greatly MP wise.

At the end of the day she got her Mana Affinity to level 75 while her Ancient Knowledge was 15.

It was around dinner time, and her parents were obviously worried, but she didn't bother bringing it up because she saw no need too.

Once night fell, she decided to leave and go into a low level dungeon before she decided clear it out, which due to the level difference, gave zero EXP, she defeated the useless boss before looking at the Spirit Orbs she purchased.

_'Is this alright? to go ahead of my friends...? If I think about it logically, if I'm a higher level, then I can help them reach higher levels too...'_ she frowns slightly before nodding and using the five Fenrir spirit orbs.

She grins at them for a moment, "Alright, time to grind some levels..." she raised her gun and equipped her gauntlet to her left hand, she enters her demon form before grinning, "Let the hunt begin!" she uses her wings to fly forward and grabs one of the Fenrirs by the throat and flew up into the ceiling with it, she lets go and let it drop onto one of the other Fenrirs, she took aim and shot them.

One died and the other was heavily injured, so she flew down and lands on the neck of the near death beast, killing it instantly, she looks at the other three before activating Demonic Aura, she took a step forward before flying towards them.

They tried to use magic together to try killing her, but it didn't work because she was fast enough to avoid them.

she lands on the ground before them before slashing at one of them with her gauntlet, with the bonus in strength she currently had, she was able to kill it pretty easily and split it in two, she looks at the other two remaining Fenrirs and raises her hand towards them, a giant ball of fire appeared in her hand, she shot it towards them and before it hit it changed directions to head straight up.

After a certain distance, it explodes and possibly hundreds of small bullets of fire rained down on to the beast, after the flames died down, the battle was over, so she decides to harvest them.

That gave her a total of 50,000 EXP, five Fenrir Pelts and surprisingly, 1 Magic infused soul, which she had no idea what to do with, but maybe Luna or Lelin would want it?

She sighs and checks the time as she leaves the dungeon, it was currently around 11 PM, so Luna's Black Market should be opening.

Artoria goes to Lelin and she opens a door to the Black Market for her, once she walks through she sees no one is there, she decides to chat with Luna while browsing the catalogue, after a while she brings up the Magic Infused Soul she got, making Luna... not really look shocked because of the mask, but Artoria could tell.

"Oh? You got one of those? Knowing how abnormal your luck is, it does make sense you'd be the first to get one..." Luna mutters while taking it, "Oh, it's a Fenrir Soul as well? Interesting... Did you check what it does?" Artoria tilts her head.

"You can do that? I've just been remembering what an item does when I buy it."

...

"Oh dear lord, you're an idiot..." Luna says blandly, making Artoria flinch before Luna goes a lengthy discussion on how to gain a skill that allowed you to see the stats of items you own and allies, she said with special requirements it could advance to be able to observe Enemies, but she wouldn't reveal how unless payed.

The skill was weird, instead of levels it had tiers, which probably meant each level of observe did something different and there was a very limited amount of them.

"Alright, this little thing you brought me can be used in many ways, enhancing an object with magic properties, gaining a skill the defeated beast had - in this case a Fenrir's, and even using it to perform a full recovery in combat, Full HP and MP, thought people don't often do that one." she explained, making Artoria nod in understanding.

"How do I go about enhancing a weapon with it then?" she looks at her, "for one blood bag I'd be willing to do it, honestly the process is rather cheap... Unless you want to pay for permanent access to the Magic Forge in one of the side rooms?" Artoria tilts her head, "how many blood bags would that take?"

"About seventy eight." "Wouldn't that kill me?!"

After deciding to not commit suicide by blood donation, Artoria decides to just give one blood bag and decided to have Luna infuse the Soul into her Gauntlet.

They go into one of the side rooms and Artoria sees a massive machine that had pipes everywhere.

Luna puts the gauntlet into the first slot and poured the Fenrir soul into a funnel, which collected in a container above the second slot, the machine comes to life and the conveyance rolls the gauntlet into the second slot, a few mechanical grabbers pick it up and some tools come down, all glowing with the same energy as the soul in the container above.

They poke at and slightly cut the gauntlet in places and over the next five minutes the shape slowly changed from the Demonic Gauntlet, which seemed refined and something from Skyrim, to a wild appearance with some white fur lining the end of the gauntlet that would go up her arm.

The arms set it down and the conveyor rolls it to the third slot and it opens, Luna slowly takes it out and passes it to Artoria, "Here you go." Artoria takes a hold of it slowly and uses Observe on it.

**[Demonic Fenrir Gauntlet - Rarity: Legendary]  
****A left handed gauntlet that was made with demonic energy and infused with a Fenrir's Soul  
****-Can only be equipped by Demonic entities.  
****-+1,000 Slash damage with claws  
****-+100 Blunt damage with punch  
****-+300 Defence with blocking**

_'So the blunt damage went down by two thirds, but the defence and Slash went up, nice.'_ She nods her head to Luna before leaving while saying thanks to Luna.

As she was leaving, she bumped into someone who had just entered, and she was very surprised when _she_ was the one knocked down.

She rubs her butt while getting up from the floor, "Oi, brat..." she looked up at the buff man, whose glare seemed to make her instincts go hay-wired, "Watch where you're going..." and with that, the man walks over to the counter and after a moment he goes into the back room.

She sighs before leaving, it was around Midnight now, so she had nothing good to do... Maybe her friends were up and she could go dungeon running with them?

She opened Discord on her phone and realised all of them were online, which was odd, so she decided to start a group call with them after some thought.

"Yo, Artoria, what's up?" Ah, it seems Micheal picked up first, "Nothing much, I got nothing to do so I wanted to talk with everyone." Micheal raises a brow, "Don't you normally train at night?" Artoria sighs, "Meditating and reading for every night is starting to get boring, besides, I just got out of Luna's Market and upgraded one of my items, so I wanna test it out."

"Oh, an Upgrade? I already managed that with my daggers." Rebecka seemed to have picked up as well, "Oh cool, what'd ya do with upgrading, Rebecka?" Matthew as also on, "Oh, I just serrated the edges so it caused both poison and bleed affects." "Nice."

"So, we meeting up for a dungeon?" came the slightly tired voice of Vincent, "Oh hey Bro, weren't you asleep?" "Yes, but it seems I forgot to put my phone on silent... Oh well, I'm rather bored anyways."

"Alright, let's meet up at the park and then head out." after waiting for a few minutes, which Artoria listened to music for the time, the group was all there and in a party, but before they left, they heard Lelin speak up from her stand.

"Hey, do guys know there are Guilds, right?" they stop and look at her for a moment, "What?"

"Yeah, there are guilds, did you really think this game didn't have guilds?"

...

"Everyone, we know what we're going tonight." getting some agreement from everyone, they ask Lelin about how they would go about making a guild, which Lelin snaps her fingers and a portal appears, "This will take you to the Guild Hall, the portal on the other side will take you back here. Say hi to Pran for me, haven't talked to them for abit."

They didn't know who Pran was, but rolled with it as they stepped through, they were in a courtyard of sorts and proceeded to head inside the building the courtyard was connected too.

* * *

Next time on The World of Games  
_"What are we lacking, as a team anyways?"_

_"So, The Hunter decided to come at us themselves."_

_"I... I don't deserve any of this..."_

* * *

**Stats**

**Name: Artoria Bell  
Level: 58 (1,725 EXP to Level Up)  
Title: [None]  
Race: Greater Demon**

**HP: 1,780/1,780  
HPR: 103.2 HP/m  
MP: 7,700/7,700  
MPR: 3,234 MP/m**

**STR: 152  
VIT: 154  
DEX: 75  
INT: 255 (293.25) +15%  
WIS: 168 (180.6) +7.5%  
LUCK: 25**

**Elemental Affinity  
Fire: 25**

**Points: 170  
Money: $95,000**

**Traits**

**[Super Genius - Rank: 5 - Trait]  
The player has a perfect memory and will gain 5 INT and 3 WIS per level.**

**[Greater Demon - Rank: 2 - Racial Trait]  
The player gains an extra skill slot and gains 4 STR and VIT per level.  
Automatically gives Skill: [Demonic Aura]**

**Equipment**

**[Dragon Flame Magic-Pistol - Rarity: Legendary]  
A Handgun with the power of a fire dragon within.  
\- 1 MP = 40 Damage  
\- +75% Effectiveness with fire  
Cost: Varies**

**[Demonic Fenrir Gauntlet - Rarity: Legendary]  
****A left handed gauntlet that was made with demonic energy and infused with a Fenrir's Soul  
****-Can only be equipped by Demonic entities.  
****-+1,000 Slash damage with claws  
****-+100 Blunt damage with punch  
****-+300 Defence with blocking**

**Skills**

**[Observe [Tier 1] (Active)]  
****Allows the user to observe the stats of allies and owned items.**

**[Demon Form (Active) LV30 12.62%]  
Transforms the user into a demonic version of themselves, strengthening them physically  
\- +40 STR  
\- +80 VIT  
\- +40 DEX  
Cost: 75 MP per second**

**[Demonic Aura (Active) LV5 12.73%]  
Strengthens the users body by flowing Demonic Aura through it.  
\- +10% STR, DEX, VIT  
Cost: 240 MP per second**

**[Handgun Proficiency (Passive) LV35 62.18%]  
Increases the user's proficiency with Handguns  
\- +70% Accuracy with Handguns  
\- +140% Damage with Handguns**

**[Mana Affinity (Passive) LV75 18.94%]  
A skill that allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it better.**  
**\- +375% increase in MP recovery rate.**  
**\- +150% increase in total MP amount.**  
**\- +150% increase in magic attack.**  
**\- +150% increase in magic defence.**  
**\- +750% increase in MP related skill effects.**

**[Ancient Knowledge (Passive) LV15 2.63%]  
****A skill that shows your understand of the knowledge of old  
****-Able to remember 15% of the Necronomicon without needing to think about it.  
****-+15% INT  
-+7.5% WIS**

**[Mana Manipulation (Active) LV50 18.21%]  
Allows the user to manipulate their mana into attacks or defense  
\- +120% increase to Magic Attack/Defence  
Cost: Varies**

**[Fire Manipulation (Active) LV50 12.00%]  
Allows the user to transform their mana into fire for multiple uses  
\- +120% Effectiveness with Fire  
\- +50% Resistance to Fire  
Cost: Varies**

**[Gravity Manipulation (Active) LV10 62.72%]  
Allows the user to alter gravity with their mana  
\- +40% Effectiveness with Gravity**


	5. The First to Come

**A/N: Another week, another chapter!**

**PanKeRio: I made spelling mistakes? I checked it over like, five different times, but oh well.**

**Glad you like the talk between characters, instead of focusing on the game aspect (Like I normally do) I'm trying to focus on Character development alot more.**

**Also, the ideas for cursed items is something I've already thought of, but still, nice suggestions.**

**I kinda agree, I was hitting a bit of a stump with chapter four, and I had to get it out in time, so I had abit of Filler to possibly flesh out the characters abit more, not sure how well it worked... But' I'm glad you didn't think it was bad.**

* * *

Last time on The World of Games  
_"Everyone, we know what we're going tonight." getting some agreement from everyone, they ask Lelin about how they would go about making a guild, which Lelin snaps her fingers and a portal appears, "This will take you to the Guild Hall, the portal on the other side will take you back here. Say hi to Pran for me, haven't talked to them for abit."_

_They didn't know who Pran was, but rolled with it as they stepped through, they were in a courtyard of sorts and proceeded to head inside the building the courtyard was connected too._

* * *

**Chapter 5: The First to Come...**

* * *

Once inside, they saw alot of people, some around their age and some much older.

Artoria did a quick glance at the levels of everyone in the lobby area, the average level as around 40 to 50, so these are people who took to monster hunting very seriously.

They look at the counter, cause these places seemed to love their counters, and saw a rather short girl, around 125 to 130 centimetres tall, they had green shoulder length hair with a mustard colored ribbon holding her hair in place.

They also noticed the four wings at her back, each pointing in a diagonal direction from her, the wings close to her body were dark green while the ends were bright green, she wore a black dress covering her shoulders and part of arm with white frills at the ends and yellow bands holding it in places right before the frills to hold it together.

She also had a white apron, and from under the dress they saw black stockings and black dress shoes.

And she was being hit on by... Was that Riley?

"Hey babe, You look like you're tired, how about we go to a private room and have some fun?" Artoria walked over to him and slapped him with her tail, hitting him hard enough that it knocked him back a few meters.

"Oh, thanks for that." the green head smiles at her while bowing, Artoria looks up to see her name.

**Pran Froweri LV?**  
**Administrator**  
**The Fairy Garden**

Artoria bows to her slightly, "Your welcome, I'm Artoria Bell, Lelin told me to tell you she said 'Hi'." Pran laughed slightly, "Ah, okay, we'll need to meet up some time soon... it's been about four day's since we last talked to each other... Ah, sorry! Sorry! I get distracted easily."

She bows to them, "Welcome to the Guild Hall, I am Pran Froweri, and I am in charge of managing the guilds that the players form." Artoria nods, as she sort of expected this.

"So, since we don't know much about how guilds work in this game, would you mind filling us in?" Pran nods with a smile.

"There are two types of guilds, Quest Guilds and Hunting Guilds, Quest Guilds allows you to take daily, weekly and monthly Quest with varying rewards while Hunting Guilds can offer more money for items you find in dungeons. That is, of course only the basics, but if you want some info on the benefits, I'll be happy to explain."

Artoria motions her to continue, "Great! There are ways to level a guild up, which will give the Guild Leader Guild Points where they can spend them to give all members permanent boost to their stats, HP, MP, or anything really."

...

"Oh dear lord..." Artoria instantly was in thought about how broken that would be for her, if she boosted her HP, then it would catch up to her MP, since that was incredibly high already thanks to her Mana Affinity.

Micheal decides to speak up, "so, how do we make a guild?" Artoria begins to listen back into the conversation.

"Well, a small test and a fee of five hundred thousand dollars is all you need."

...

"How much money does everyone has?" Artoria pipes up while glancing at her status to see her money, after they all say their total, they add it up and realise they had 505k in total, so they decide to go through with this.

A replica of Pran comes out from behind her, "If you'll follow me." they walk to the back room to see a small arena, in the middle was a rock construct that was slumped over.

The Replica of Pran motions towards it while speaking, "This the test, the person will will become the Guild Master has to either defeat this construct, or survive for five minutes." The four humans out of the five look at Artoria before giving her a slight push forward.

"Go get em, leader!"

"Do your best!"

Artoria sighs before walking over to the construct as it comes to life as a text appears above it.

**Stone Construct LV95**

That was... pretty high level...

Artoria equips her gun and gauntlet before the test begins, the Construct of Stone runs at her, slower then her back still pretty fast.

She jumps backwards to avoid the fist, which caused a shock-wave big enough to knock out back into a pillar, _'Okay, incredibly strong then, probably can take one hell of a beating too...'_ She grins, she wanted to go all out for this.

In a pulse of Demonic energy, she enters her Demon Form, She smiled while her eyes glow red.

The others look at her, they just noticed, but her demon form, as she called it, had two sets of horns, and the tail was much longer and she had some blades along the ends of her wings, but it looked like she didn't noticed it.

She flew directly at the Stone Construct and landing on its head and raised her gauntlet-ed hand and punched the head, which also caused a small shock-wave to form.

The wind off it caused the hair of the others watching to get blown back abit, surprising them with the level of strength she had, she continued to punch the Construct a few more times, before having to jump off to avoid a swipe, she looks at it's health, barely any damage.

She takes aim with her gun and decides to fire a 100 MP round, giving 4,000 Damage in total.

It tinks off the rock and did about 1% of damage to the HP bar.

Back with the others, Micheal whistles slightly, "Damn, that thing is really beefy, think Artoria can kill it?" he decides to ask his friends, who all gave an affirmative, confusing Pran as this construct was meant to be unbeatable to people under level 75.

Artoria flies into the air and raises her gauntlet hand and coats it in mana before flying down and swinging her claws at the construct, actually damaging the rock it was made out of.

_'What the, what weapon is that? It's way too strong to be something normal.'_ Pran thinks to themself while looking on in shock at the fact the Stone Construct was actually damaged.

After landing from the strike she just dealt, Artoria turns and aims at the centre piece of the Construct and fuels the next shot with 12k MP, dealing a whooping 480k damage and tearing it to pieces.

A moment passes as Pran stared in complete shock, that couldn't of happened, but it did... just what is this 'Artoria'?

Artoria exits her Demon Form and walks over to them, Micheal gives her a light punch to the shoulder while grinning, "Alright! Great going, Leader!"

After some talk between friends, the five go back into the main lobby area and walk up some stairs, which the replica of Pran led them to a room.

"Alright, beyond this door is somewhere only Artoria can go for the moment, it's where the settings for the guild will be set, so I'll explain abit before hand so you can discuss it, as some settings can't be changed later." they nod before sitting down at a set of chairs.

"So, first thing first... You weren't meant to actually... Beat. The Stone Construct until level 75, which no one is so far. So you got the first time bonus to your guild, which means you start off with three levels in your guild instead of one." They cheer slightly at that knowledge.

"Now, you already know this, but I'll go into more depth about it. Questing Guilds get daily, Weekly and Monthly quest, these can range from 'Clear a certain Dungeon' to 'Get a certain item' to normal everyday stuff like 'Volunteer at construction' and other things like that."

"Hunting Guilds allow you to have your own vault where everyone will have access to a collective source of money, items and weapons, allowing shared inventory. However, some items can be locked from other players through a 1k dollar fee. These guilds get roughly ten percent more money they'd normally get from selling items, but don't get discounts, as that is more tied to the person then the guild interface."

Artoria tilts her head, she's been getting discounts left and right from Lelin, and she even did one with Luna once, but she was much harder to bargain with.

Pran continues explaining, "There are also certain settings, like what alignment is the Guild, good, evil, neutral, or anything like that, there's also how people join the guild, whether they need an invitation or they an apply for it."

They nod to her, after some more explanation, the five friends talk for abit, before they finally come to a conclusion.

Artoria walks in and looks at the panels around her, so she goes through the settings to pick out which ones she wanted.

**Name: Silver Winds  
****Level: 3 (0/30)  
****Type: Quest**

**Alignment: Chaotic Good**

**Join: Invites only (Must be approved by Guild Leader)  
****Member limit: 10**

**[Quest: 5D 2W 1M]**

She nods before accepting the choices.

**Congratulations, you've successfully made your own guild.**

**You've been given the title [Silver Winds]**

Oh, that's how she gets a title.

She walks outside and Pran leads her to a room down a few halls.

They come up to a room with the number 4 on it, and a blank name plate, which was soon turned into the name 'Silver Winds'.

"This will be where you can enter your Guild Room, which is where you can hang out, accept Guild Quest, upgrade your Guild Boost, and much more."

Pran then walks Artoria through how to invite people to a guild, which she does so for her friends before they head inside.

it was rather normal, a couch, a large TV, a coffee table and a kitchen, there were two extra rooms with were bedrooms with five beds in each.

"Seems pretty normal..." Micheal says before turning on the TV, which came up with a menu, the options were 'Upgrade', 'Quest' and 'Members', so Artoria takes the remote and selects Upgrades, "We'll do this then head back home for the night."

They nod before looking at the options, it seemed they got four points per level, each could be spent to upgrade a boost, each point towards a stat gives +10, so they could all gain 120 in any given stat they wanted.

"What are we lacking, as a team anyways?" they all think, they had ranged, tanks, DPS and stealth, "I'm just thinking about, why not just put four into VIT, six in DEX and the last two can be luck." Micheal pipes in, and soon after everyone agrees, Artoria does the point distribution before they look at the quest, they had five for daily, two for weekly and one for monthly.

Deciding to worry about it later, they leave and all head home to sleep for school tomorrow.

Artoria decided not to train tonight, since she's done alot of that recently.

* * *

She wakes up that morning and gets a pop-up about the Guilds Daily quest, one of which was to explore a dungeon with a guild mate, so she knew what she was doing later today.

She got changed into school uniform after having a shower and jumped her way to school.

She gets there and sees Riley with his group of friends.

**Riley White LV47**  
**Crimson Blades**

She decides to walk up to him, "Oh hello there Riley, I see you're also part of a guild." she says blandly, but her voice caused the five people in total to look at her.

"Oh, so the little freak joined a guild? That's a Laugh, I'm the Owner of the Crimson Blades." Artoria looks at him in mild shock, "Wow, I honestly didn't expect you to also be a Guild Leader like I am." that stops him for a moment before he scoffs, "Well, me and my Guild worked all night to get to level two, so I doubt your guild is as good as-" "My guilds level three."

...

Artoria speaks again, "You're trying to have a dick measuring contest with a woman and you're losing. That takes a special kind of man." he goes to punch her, but maybe he forgot she was a higher level then him, so she raised a hand and simply knocked the hand away, and she used her Demonic Aura skill to frighten them away, for now anyways.

She goes to where her friends, and now her fellow Guild mates, hang out, she sits down and they begin talking about a few things, especially about a rumour that got started last night and blew up.

It was about a person who took levelling so seriously, they were already level 70, and the thing was they went solo the entire time, and were out hunting other people who were hunting to take their equipment, but nobody knew their face as they were always wearing a mask.

This person got nicknamed 'The Hunter' as they were the only person to hunt other players, and it drove off a lot of people already as, so far, over a hundred low level hunters have decided to quit in fear of being hunted down by this person.

That didn't really scare Artoria and her friends though, and they had a few guild quests to do after school, but they all had one to complete right now during break at school.

And it all started with a water-balloon...

* * *

Artoria was perched up on a building, she was looking down at the main area, it was off to the side and it was a grass area, which did need some watering, so they'd be doing good.

Micheal, Rebecka, Matthew and Vincent were all also perched on roofs with Water balloons at the ready, one of their weekly quest was to start a water balloon fight during school.

...

She wasn't even joking, this quest had a reward of 2k EXP and would level her up.

She looked down, as she was searching for a target, before spotting Riley.

She takes aim and nails him right in the throat, causing him to couch as water went up his nose and look at where it was, and spotted Artoria, but also spotted a pop up.

**[Guild Event Quest] Water Fight!**

**BIO: The Guild [Silver Winds] has started a Water Balloon fight with the Guild [Crimson Blade], but other methods of water attacking are allowed.**

**Objective: Beat the enemy Team**

**Reward: 2k EXP to all members of the winning team, 2 Guild EXP**

It seemed alot similar to the Paper Fight Event Quest they got from school, but it was a war this time, since they were much stronger, and Silver Winds wouldn't show mercy.

A few moments later, it started raining water balloons on Team Crimson, who instantly went for cover under a building.

They hold their hands to the side and water balloons appear in their hands, as this was the most used ammo of the quest, both teams can spawn it in mass quantities.

They started throwing the balloons back up at Silver Winds, who started dodging and jumping across the roof tops, well, Artoria, Matthew and Rebecka did, since Vincent and Micheal didn't have the stats to effectively do as such, and while in the air they threw water balloons down at them.

Alot of students got caught in the cross fire, and were soaked because of them, the main courtyard of the lunch area was now a battle zone of water balloons, and after ten minutes, the quest ends.

**The Guild Event Quest is over, now announcing the winner.**

**Silver Winds - 310 hits**

**Crimson Blades - 285 hits**

**Silver Winds have won.**

**You've levelled up!**

Artoria grins slightly as she now has to run with her friends to avoid the teachers from giving them detention.

The blame for the whole incident was placed on Riley and his Guild, since they were basically bullies and no one liked them, and everyone, while annoyed, didn't rat out anyone on the Silver Winds, or even the guild name itself, since they all got a good laugh out of Riley and his friends getting owned, and because of their reputation, no one believed them since they thought they were trying to get others in their trouble.

After that, school continued like normal, afterwards they get changed into their casual clothes and head towards a high level dungeon, was was recommended around level 65, but with the bonus from the Guild Title, they believed that they could handle it, plus they wanted to get some more levels.

They talk to Lelin at her stand by the portal for abit before entering, they were in a mountainous area, so they follow along a pathway that wrapped around the mountains, along the way they encountered dragons, a total of 32 dragons, each giving a total of 1,000 EXP, giving them 32k EXP, which gave them 6,400 EXP each, giving them all a level or two.

They get to the top of a mountain and see a large, open area, which probably meant if they walked forward they'd face a boss.

The group sits down and uses a stick to draw on the ground, "Alright, since this is a high level area, we should probably plan about how we'll handle the boss. So far, we've been facing dragons, so it's safe to assume, that much like the other dungeons, some legendary or powerful foe will fight us, I can think of it being Bahamut, King Ghidorah, or another dragon of legend. So we should plan on how to advance from here."

They all agreed and begin drawing, after about ten minutes of planning they get up and prepare themselves before walking forward into the boss arena.

The sky darkens and thunder clouds begin to form, in the sky, a crack seemed to form on the air itself, it got bigger and bigger, before finally, a massive claw the size of a building comes out it of, tearing the crack far open, inside the crack in reality was a dark work with blue and black energy bellowing out of the rift.

Out comes a giant, mechanical dragon of sorts, and it lands off the side of the mountain, which was probably a good thing since IT WAS THE SIZE OF THE MOUNTAIN!

The group of five, who were very unprepared for a mountain sized dragon, stood their ground as the massive head of the dragon rose over the horizon of the mountain and looked at them before it released a earth tearing roar, the battles begun.

a blue and black smoke began to build up in the mouth of the mechanical beast, Micheal yells out as the ground shook, "Everyone by me!" the four other teenagers rush to his side as he raises his shield, a moment later he slams the butt of his shield into the ground and a dome of mana forms around them, just in time too, as a torrent of blue and black energy blasted at them from the dragons mouth, but the dome was beginning to crack.

Artoria swears lightly before putting a hand on Micheal's back and pushing her own mana into him, giving him more then enough to support the dome around them until the breath attack is done.

The dome cracks and shatters once the attack was finished, "Shit, I won't be able to use that for another minute now..." Micheal says, the roar of the dragon brought everyone's attention to it.

It was flying in the air and was beginning to flap it's wings harder and harder, making it difficult to stay standing as the wind was trying to blow them back, thankfully due to Artoria's high Dex, she was about to get a well aimed 500 MP shot right at it's left wing, which knocked it down and it hit the ground with a loud and heavy bang, making the ground shake as it happens.

Artoria enters her Demon Form as to fly up to scout what it was doing, it was currently getting up, so she took aim with her pistol and fired a few rounds at it to keep it down for a moment.

She lands back with her friends, "Alright, Vincent, you go with Rebecka to the cave system to the right, you can take cover there from it's attacks, Rebecka, sadly, I don't think you can deal alot of damage to this thing since - How the hell would you sneak attack a mountain sized dragon? Vincent, you're taking pot shots to help lower HP. Micheal, stick to defence and make sure everyone doesn't die. Matthew... Wanna fly?" a moment later, Artoria was carrying Matthew as they flew towards the dragon.

The dragon tried to swipe at them, but Artoria managed to dodge, and they flew right for the head, and flew up to avoid being dragon food before Artoria flew towards the head and used her Demonic aura skill for a moment to punch with all her might while Matthew did a axe kick to one of the eyes, Artoria grabs Matthew and they fly back after the mechanical beast roared out once more.

Artoria took the time it took to fly back to where Micheal was to see it's HP, _'Oh my god it's still at 100%'_ they had done zero damage to this thing, and now Artoria was alittle scared for not only hers, but her friends lives.

_'Should we run...? I mean, we can easily jump off the side of the mountain towards where the exit is..'_ She thinks to herself while herself and Matthew runs into the cave and Micheal makes a wall of mana to cover the exit of the cave as blue and black energy covers the field, Artoria makes sure to supply Micheal with a hefty amount of mana as to keep the barrier up while they talk.

"Guys, I don't think we can take this thing as we right right now. I literally have 200 strength and one of my punches did not even a percent of damage to it." she tells them, making them look slightly fearful, "Then what can we do?" she looks down, she was their leader, she had to think of something...

"Wait... It's a mechanical beast... Mechanical means metal and robotics..." her mind was going as fast as it could, which with her incredibly high INT and WIS, was pretty fast.

"That's it!" she looks up with new renown vigour in her eyes, "Does anyone here have lightning Manipulation?" she asked them, Vincent raised his hand, "Perfect, when I give you the signal, you'll know what to do." she stops feeding Micheal mana as she rushes out of the cave and flies into the air to keep distracting the dragon, firing blast after blast, she lands on the ground while the dragon was staggered.

She ran forward with her left hand held back, in it formed a ball of spiralling flames that seemed to form a rough sword, she swings it upwards, hitting with enough force to knock the head up into the sky.

She looks for a moment before seeing her target, she fires a small bullet at it to show where she meant, "NOW!" from the cave, Vincent was laying prone with a ball of lightning at the end of his barrel, he saw where Artoria shot and saw what he was meant to shoot.

It was a gap in the armour, as it was a Mechanical Dragon, it needed to have joints to move, so he fires, and the bullet barely makes it in the gap before the dragon convulses and a shield that was invisible before now fizzles and fades, Artoria flies up and lands a solid punch on it's head, knocking it off the mountain, so she decides to look at it's health, _'97%, only three percent damage? Well, better then before.'_

The dragon roars and something seems to hit Artoria, no... everyone, in their mind, a single message 'I WILL RETURN!' before the dragon flew back up into the rift it came out of and slow, the rift closed.

But before it did, Artoria flew to the rift to see what was inside, it was a realm of Mechanical Beast the likes of which she's never seen before, but she couldn't see what any of them looked like in specifics before the rift fully closed.

She lands by her friends and exits her demon form and sits down, that was probably the most active she's used the form for combat and she was tired from it.

"Yo, Leader, you okay?" Micheal walks up to her and gives her a pat on the shoulder, she gives a weak nod, "Yeah, it's been awhile since I got tired from overuse of mana, almost forgot what it felt like." she stands up slowly and sighs while looking at her gun and gauntlet, she was thinking to herself about how to improve her fighting style, since it was very mana consuming at the moment if she wanted to deal any good damage.

She decides to holsters her gun for now and turns to her guild mates, "Well, I got a look inside that place, and it isn't pretty..." after explaining what she saw in there, the others began thinking, "You think there are many of these mechanical bosses of which we'll encounter over time?" Rebecka asked, making the others shiver slightly, "We... should probably leave." Vincent states while looking around, "Since nothing is here, we don't need to stay here anymore. We can probably go back and maybe do a few more Guild Quest before we have to go home."

They nod and start making the trek down the mountain path, about two minutes until the exit, Artoria stops, and since she was in the front, the others stop when they noticed that she did.

"Hey, Artoria, what's up?" Artoria glances around before speaking, "Come out, I know your there." seamlessly, a mass of darkness comes out of the ground and forms into a figure roughly abit shorter then Artoria's height, they had a black hoodie that was also a coat with a plain black mask, black pants and boots.

They had a sword in hand, and looked ready to fight, the five gets ready for combat, but Artoria looks above the figure.

**? LV78**  
**The Hunter**

"So, The Hunter decided to come at us themselves." they don't say anything, but does get into a fighting position, they suddenly disappear in a puff of black smoke before appearing behind Artoria and swinging at her, she raises her gauntlet in time to block the attack, but she still takes some damage, the figure disappears again and was a distance away this time, but had their hand forward and fired a rather impressive barrage of dark mana balls.

The figure runs alongside them so while blocking the blast, Artoria got a hefty cut alot her left shoulder from the sword The Hunter held, which cut rather deep and Artoria jumped back while holding it in pain, for some reason this person was aiming only for her, so she orders the others to stay out of it while entering her demon form.

"Alright, you wanna play like that? Let's play!" she lets off a slightly sadistic grin before rushing forward at the figure.

They clash and shock-waves form around them as they enter fisticuffs galore, Artoria tried getting a shot off but her gun was knocked away, and she got a fist right in her abdomen, which hurt enough to make her vomit up blood.

She swings her gauntlet-ed hand at the face in a claw like swing, which actually grazed it and caused the figure to jump away while holding their face as black chips fall off the perfectly smooth black mask.

The figure removes their hand and they see a hole in the mask, just big enough to see one of the eyes, it was a white eye with the normal whites being black instead.

It was a creepy sight to behold to most normal people, but Artoria wasn't normal, not anymore.

She rushed forward and tried to swing at the mask again, which oddly enough The Hunter didn't dodge the punch and took it, causing the mask to shatter and send the figure into the rocky wall of the mountain path.

Artoria exits Demon Form before getting her gun back and walking up to The Hunter and raising her gun to aim it at their head, fully prepared to load all her mana into a single shot to kill this person.

But at a glance of the face of The Hunter, Artoria faltered, this was... just a little girl...

Sure, the black hair, pale white skin, and those eyes made her look creepy, but she was still a small child.

Artoria slowly lowered her gun and put it in her holster before kneeling before her, the girl was unconscious, Artoria reached down at one of the pieces of the mask and felt compelled to repair it, in which case she instantly threw the piece away and picked the girl up.

"We're leaving." She states before carrying the girl out of the dungeon with her guild following her, and getting to their guild room to let her rest on a couch while they talked.

"Artoria, why'd you take her here? She can easily try killing us when she wakes up." Micheal asked, concerned about the surprisingly strong child his guild leader just thought.

Artoria shakes her head, "No, when I picked up one of those mask fragments, I felt it try to compel me to reform it, if I'm correct, this girl found the mask and was forced to do it's bidding against her will. But we will see."

They stay for awhile before the girl twitched slightly, causing Artoria to walk over and sits by her while the girl woke up.

"Wh-where...?" she looked around and saw those around her, she quickly sat up and looked scared, "W-Who are you people?" she looked so scared out of her mind right now.

Artoria decides to try speaking in a kind tone, "Don't worry, we're not here to hurt you." Artoria gets a juice popper out of her inventory, and gave it to the kid, "u-uh..." she points at the juice box and then herself, which makes Artoria nod.

The girl took the juice box and takes the straw off and stab it into the juice box hole and drank it, she also got some food in the form of a sandwich, well at least she was less worried about them now, they seemed nice.

"Now, if you don't mind me asking, what's the last thing you remember?" Artoria tried to make sure her voice was smooth and relaxing to listen too as to not scare the kid because of her demon like appearance.

"U-um... I remember the game starting...Making myself look like this and going into a dungeon... I managed to find a hidden room and found a weird mask in it... But that's it." Artoria nods, she needed to ask a question to make sure her theory was correct.

"And how many days has it been since the game started?" the girl looked confused, "It started today, didn't it?"

Now the others started to see Artoria's reasoning, this girl didn't remember anything after finding that mask.

"Well... We'll talk about that in a moment, I'm Artoria Bell." she motions to the four others in the room, "That's Micheal Knight, Rebecka Green, Matthew Holt and Vincent Holt. The five of us found you in a dungeon and after a fight, we were able to rescue you." best to not mention it was her she fought for the time being.

The girl nods, "I'm Lily Hood." As soon as she says that, her nametag above her updated to have said name.

"It's nice to meet you Lily, we... may need to talk for awhile." Artoria puts on an apologetic look before starting to explain what had happened and how they met.

After a full five minutes, Lily was looking down in shock, her juice box and sandwich completely forgotten by now.

"It's been nearly a week...?" Artoria nods, "I-I need to go see my mom and dad, they must be worried sick about me." she stands up, and Artoria stand up with her, "Alright, How about I escort you back home?" She asked in a kind tone, getting a nod from the girl.

After that, the group walks to her house but found police cars and a bunch of tape around the house, making Artoria fear for the worse.

Lily walks to one of the police officers, who was freaked out by her appearance, but when she asked what happened he explained.

"About a week ago, the mother and father of a girl who lived here died when the girl went missing." her eyes widen in shock before she broke down crying.

Artoria tried consoling her, but it didn't seem to help, so while Artoria was trying to calm the 12 year old, Rebecka spoke to the police Officer, "Was the girl who went missing named Lily Hood?" the officer nods before Rebecka turns to the girl crying, "Well, we found her." the officers eyes widen in disbelief before he states he has to make a call before going to his car.

Artoria stays to comfort the girl, after awhile more cars show up and they ask Lily to come with them, and they thanked Artoria and her friends for helping find her.

While the others wanted to go home, Artoria went with Lily to the police station to help support her emotionally.

Once they got there, they were questioned about where Lily was and how they found her, so they told the truth with abit of it hidden.

Lily explained how she doesn't remember anything after finding a mask, and Artoria explained how they found her in a dungeon wearing the mask she spoke about, they managed to destroy it which left her unconscious for a few hours, so they let her rest in their guild room before escorting her home, which is where they met the police and...

She stopped before she made Lily cry again, as she just managed to stop doing so, but only barely.

"I see... Well, it good to know your safe." the person interviewing them looks at Lily's odd appearance, "You must be one of the people who used the Character Creation from the first day of this game. You picked an... Odd appearance..." Lily fidgets slightly.

"W-Well, I got an offer to pick a Fictional Race, so I picked 'Revenant'." That caught Artoria's attention, "Wait, you're not human either?" Lily looks at her for a moment before speaking in a deadpanned tone, "How did I not notice the horns before now..."

Artoria laughs, "I'm actually kind of glad you didn't, it's been weird around people since I got them. At least my friends don't pay them any mind unless I bring it up myself." she was surprised honestly, she was enjoying her time with the girl, she had suspected that she wasn't human, but she looked completely human minus being monochrome, and you could change the colours on your body no matter what, it's the reason why Micheal, Matthew and Vincent have unnatural hair colours.

Artoria thinks for a moment before asking the interviewer, "What's going to happen to Lily now?" he starts listing off that she'll be placed in the care of a temporary family and that would stay like that until someone adopted her.

Artoria thinks for a moment, before nodding to herself, "My family would be willing to take her in." she alone had $95k, so she can supply for Lily if needed, but she wasn't going to let a non-human be left in the care of people she doesn't know.

"Well, we need to call your parents, I hope you understand that." she nods and gives the contact information for her parents, after a short phone call, and Artoria explaining to her parents she would pay for everything Lily would need, they agreed.

And now she's paying her parents $500 every week, that money would be used to buy necessities for Lily and be used in emergencies.

She also managed to, after awhile, talk them into adoption.

So Lily Hood was now officially Lily Bell, and was possibly the highest level person on the planet at this very moment.

So Artoria decides to go into her demon form and flies Lily to her house, they pick up anything Lily wants to take with her before flying to Artoria's house.

Artoria looked at the house, and thought about a few things, one of them being, could she probably upgrade her house- Oh.

The moment she thought of it, a menu popped up.

**House Renovation Menu**

**Clean Mold - $2,000**

**Upgrade Room - [Open]**

**Upgrade House - $50,000**

...

She'll bring this up with her family before doing anything.

She walks inside and introduces Lily to everyone, apparently the government saw Artoria as an adult since she was above level 50, so she technically adopted Lily as her daughter.

They were weirded out by her appearance, but it wasn't anything too new, since they got used to Artoria's appearance pretty easily.

So now Artoria was technically a mom, which is... interesting...

She was definitely not prepared for motherhood, and she doesn't even know what to do, so she just decided to try her best, interact and be kind to Lily.

It was getting late, and since there as no extra room, Lily and Artoria had to share a bed, so the two non-humans talked for abit and Artoria taught Lily abit of fighting, namely so she can handle herself and control her strength, since she was alot stronger then she thought she was.

Artoria decided to finally reveal to Lily about how they found her, and that she was controlled by the mask to hunt people down and take their items.

She was, understandably. upset by this knowledge, but also looked into her inventory.

Artoria looked at it with her, and was shocked at the amount of weapons, items and armour she had.

"I... I don't deserve any of this..." Lily looked rather sad at all the stolen items she had on her, Artoria nods, "Alright, since you have school tomorrow, why not go through your items, and pick out a one handed sword you like, I would suggest... Oh, that has a cool name, I'd suggest keeping 'The Queens Edge' since it's the best sword, and it's the one you wielded against me."

Lily didn't seem to sure, but Artoria reassures her before Lily had to go to sleep for school in the morning.

Artoria decides to stay up for awhile to read more of the Necronomicon, getting Ancient Knowledge to level 20 before going to bed herself.

* * *

Next time on The World of Games  
_"Do you want to walk to school?"_

_"So all in favour of torching the rest?"_

_"I'm so glad your safe, mom."_

* * *

**Stats**

**Name: Artoria Bell  
Level: 60 (5,225 EXP to Level Up)  
Title: [Silver Winds]  
Race: Greater Demon**

**HP: 5,020/5,020  
HPR: 1,014.04 HP/m  
MP: 15,450/15,450  
MPR: 23,337.225 MP/m**

**STR: 160  
VIT: 162 (202) +40  
DEX: 75 (135) +60  
INT: 265 (318) +20%  
WIS: 174 (191.4) +10%  
LUCK: 25 (45) +20**

**Elemental Affinity  
Fire: 25**

**Points: 180  
Money: $95,000**

**Title**

**[Silver Winds - Guild]  
****A Title to signify you are a member of the Silver Winds Guild.  
Rank: Owner  
Boost: +40 VIT, +60 DEX, +20 LUCK**

**Traits**

**[Super Genius - Rank: 5 - Trait]  
The player has a perfect memory and will gain 5 INT and 3 WIS per level.**

**[Greater Demon - Rank: 2 - Racial Trait]  
The player gains an extra skill slot and gains 4 STR and VIT per level.  
Automatically gives Skill: [Demonic Aura]**

**Equipment**

**[Dragon Flame Magic-Pistol - Rarity: Legendary]  
A Handgun with the power of a fire dragon within.  
\- 1 MP = 40 Damage  
\- +75% Effectiveness with fire  
Cost: Varies**

**[Demonic Fenrir Gauntlet - Rarity: Legendary]  
A left handed gauntlet that was made with demonic energy and infused with a Fenrir's Soul  
-Can only be equipped by Demonic entities.  
-+1,000 Slash damage with claws  
-+100 Blunt damage with punch  
-+300 Defence with blocking**

**Skills**

**[Observe [Tier 1] (Active)]  
Allows the user to observe the stats of allies and owned items.**

**[Demon Form (Active) LV35 12.72%]  
Transforms the user into a demonic version of themselves, strengthening them physically  
\- +55 STR  
\- +110 VIT  
\- +55 DEX  
Cost: 70 MP per second**

**[Demonic Aura (Active) LV8 18.12%]  
Strengthens the users body by flowing Demonic Aura through it.  
\- +16% STR, DEX, VIT  
Cost: 234 MP per second**

**[Handgun Proficiency (Passive) LV40 62.18%]  
Increases the user's proficiency with Handguns  
\- +80% Accuracy with Handguns  
\- +160% Damage with Handguns**

**[Mana Affinity (Passive) LV75 18.94%]  
A skill that allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it better.**  
**\- +375% increase in MP recovery rate.**  
**\- +150% increase in total MP amount.**  
**\- +150% increase in magic attack.**  
**\- +150% increase in magic defence.**  
**\- +750% increase in MP related skill effects.**

**[Ancient Knowledge (Passive) LV20 73.19%]  
A skill that shows your understand of the knowledge of old  
-Able to remember 20% of the Necronomicon without needing to think about it.  
-+20% INT  
-+10% WIS**

**[Mana Manipulation (Active) LV50 18.21%]  
Allows the user to manipulate their mana into attacks or defense  
\- +120% increase to Magic Attack/Defence  
Cost: Varies**

**[Fire Manipulation (Active) LV50 12.00%]  
Allows the user to transform their mana into fire for multiple uses  
\- +120% Effectiveness with Fire  
\- +50% Resistance to Fire  
Cost: Varies**

**[Gravity Manipulation (Active) LV10 62.72%]  
Allows the user to alter gravity with their mana  
\- +40% Effectiveness with Gravity  
****Cost: Varies****  
**


	6. The Curse

**A/N: Yet another Chapter, honestly I'm kind of happy there aren't many reviews, because normally I'd have to spend around 30-50 minutes writing responses alone. But hey, that's just me.**

**PanKeRio:** Glad you liked the chapter.

As for that part about Riley, that is namely set up for a future joke, as I'm sure you know.

And by technicality, they did clear the dungeon, because what they fought, wasn't the boss.

Glad you like the whole The Hunter thing, there'll be more on that mask in later chapters.

Even though Artoria is only 15 years old, she is quite abit more mature then others her age because of high INT and WIS, and since her parents couldn't get there she had to sign it, legally she's the mother of Lily, but only saw herself as a sister until about 500 words into this chapter.

There is a possible few pairings, but not any solid ones for Artoria just yet.

* * *

Last time on The World of Games  
_Lily didn't seem to sure, but Artoria reassures her before Lily had to go to sleep for school in the morning._

_Artoria decides to stay up for awhile to read more of the Necronomicon, getting Ancient Knowledge to level 20 before going to bed herself._

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Curse**

* * *

Artoria wakes up at 5 in the morning, so she got out of bed carefully as to no wake Lily up, she goes around the house, looking for stuff to do to kill time.

She ultimately settles for cleaning the rooms not occupied by people sleeping, and manages to do a pretty good job in the two hours she did so.

Her Father woke up at 5:30, had a shower and went to work at 6, which was normal, but the two did have a short chat about the house renovation menu she got yesterday before he headed off.

When it was 6:50 AM she got out a set of school uniform from Lily's school, and placed them in the bathroom, and starts making breakfast for Lily, and at 7:00 AM exact, Artoria wakes Lily up.

"Uwah...?" Lily rubs her eyes before seeing Artoria smiling at her with a plate that had some scrambled eggs and toast and also a tray used for people to eat in bed, "Breakfast in bed...?" she asked her, by technicality, adoptive mother.

Getting a nod from Artoria while she was placing the tray over Lily and the plate on top, "Do you perhaps want some orange juice with it?" Lily thinks for a moment before nodding, Artoria leaves and comes back with a glass of Orange Juice.

She also came with a sandwich, which she ate calmly while the two talked for abit while Lily ate.

Once the two were finished, Artoria turned on her PS4 and let Lily play one of her RPG's while she went to have a shower, after that, she comes back to see Lily stuck on a boss, so she offered to complete it for her while she showered, but apparently Lily was stubborn about games, and wanted to do it herself.

After a short talk, Artoria shoos Lily into the shower and tells her about the uniform she placed in there for the girl, and told her to be out by around eight, which gave Lily 30 minutes to shower.

By now, her mother was awake and actually congratulated Artoria on being a good mother so far, even if she had no experience.

Artoria got changed into her school uniform, and got Lily's bag ready for school as well as make lunch for the two of them.

Artoria may of been trying _too_ hard to be a parent, but she was fine with it.

When Lily came out, she didn't dry her hair fully, so Artoria used her mana to levitate the hair and her fire to make heat to dry it, which worked rather well in about 2 minutes.

Artoria packs everything Lily needs for the day and hands her the backpack, It was about 8:10 AM now, and they had about 40 minutes until school started.

"Do you want to walk to school?" Artoria asked, not really sure what to do, "Oh, uh... Yeah, sure." they head out and they start walking to Lily's primary school.

They talk for abit on the way there, and Lily told Artoria that this is the most anyone's ever done for her in a day, and that she was grateful for it.

Artoria then swore to try her best to do this every day from now on, once they got to the gate they see a girl with short blond hair and blue eyes, who looked around in a worried way before she spots them, she had a face of shock before running up to Lily.

"Lily, is that you?!" the girl ask while grabbing Lily's shoulders, "Yes, it's me Moma." Lily said in a happy tone as the two hug each other.

Artoria decides to speak up, "Oh? You didn't tell me you had an adorable friend, Lily." she had a slight smug expression on her face, which made the two stutter slightly.

The girl, Moma, Lily called her, speaks up, "Wait, who are you, and... Wait, Lily, why is your last name not Hood anymore?" She looked above Lily and saw her name tag.

**Lily Bell LV78**

"Wait, better yet, how are you level 78?" she asked in curiosity.

"Well..." Lily then began to explain what happened and how she came to be adopted by Artoria.

"Wait, she's your mother?" Moma asked, making Artoria laugh awkwardly, "That's only on paper and in legal terms, b-" She was cut off from Lily, "She's been a better mother to me then my real one, so... Yeah, she's my mother."

...

Artoria didn't know what emotion this was, but she sure as hell liked it.

She sighs for a moment before tapping Lily on the shoulder to get her attention, "I'll come pick you up after school, okay?" she nods, and before going off into the school, Artoria grabs her shoulder and speaks.

"If anyone makes fun of you, please, do let me known." Lily turned to see a sweet smile on Artoria, far too sweet of a smile, which with her demonic horns and tail swaying behind her, made it look like a threat to anyone who would mess with Lily.

After a short nod and a smile from Lily, both her and her friend walks into school while talking, Artoria turned towards where her school would be and jumped high into the air, Moma catch that out of the corner of her eye, and turned to watch her best friends new mother jump into the distance.

"You have a really cool mom, huh?" she asked, getting a nod from Lily.

* * *

She lands within school grounds, and used her demon form to float abit before hitting the ground with a large impact, making it a soft landing.

Artoria looks around, people had gotten used to her landing in the middle of the school by now, so no one was batting an eye at her.

Walking over to where she hangs out with her Guild members, Micheal sees her and waves, "Hey Artoria." she waves back, he looks at her for a moment, "You seem pretty happy today. Anything good happen?" he asked, Artoria just realised she hadn't messaged anyone yesterday, so she tells them about everything up to before the adoption.

"And I can say I'm a mother now."

...

"WHAT?!" four of them exclaim in shock, she then explains she adopted Lily to be her daughter, even if she was only a few years older.

"So... Lily is your daughter now?" Vincent asked in a curious tone, getting a nod from Artoria.

"Then, she seems to be interested in hunting, what are you gonna do about that?"

...

_'Oh god, oh fuck, my daughter is going to be fighting monsters, I wanna keep her safe but I also don't want to limit her and seem like a parent trying to force their child not to do what they like! What do I do?!'_ while having a mental break down over the choice of letting her now adopted daughter fight monsters, sure she was high level, higher then hers in fact, but she doesn't remember anything she did to get that strong, so she'll barely knew how to fight, unlike the five there at the moment.

Rebekah, seeing her guild leaders moral dilemma, decides to speak up, "How about we take her to a low level dungeon, and she can practice, and you can use that time to figure out which dungeons you'll allow her to hunt in." Artoria thinks for a moment before nodding.

They go through the school day normally, and at the end of school, she tells them to meet her at the Guild Room while she goes get Lily.

A short jump later, she was in front of Lily's school, waiting for her to get to the front gate.

She saw Lily walking to the gate, but got stopped by a group of boys who started poking at her skin and hair.

Artoria walks up behind them and glares at them, they seem to feel the glare and sees a demonic figure standing above them, the fear caused them to run.

Artoria calms down and pats Lily on the head, "You doing okay?" getting a nod from the girl, she lets Lily climb on her back piggy back style before she enters her demon form and flies towards the nearest dungeon so Lelin can open the way to the Guild Building.

Once inside, she meets up with her friends and asked if Lily wanted to join their guild, which she agreed too, after that, they all go to a level 40 dungeon.

The main enemies were Orcs it seemed, and Lily, while having to get used to fighting with her strength, was doing pretty good.

Artoria asked if she could look at Lily's skills to see what she had.

_'One Handed Sword Master, Observe, Blood-thirst? Let's see what that does... It's a racial skill of Revenants and grants a temporary boost to all stats when blood is __ingested, more uses grants a higher level, which increases the stat boost and the duration of the boost. That's cool, it's only level 1, so she hasn't been using it as The Hunter. What else... Lightning Manipulation, and... That's interesting? 'Blood Code: Queen' A unique Skill...?'_ she was pretty confused about that, so she read the flavour text.

'A blood code born from gathering all the relics and becoming the Queen.  
The will it holds does not contain any hint of rage or sorrow.  
It is made from pure loneliness.'

...

She may have to ask about that later, but how did she get a skill like this? She looked more into it and saw that it boosted all stats depending on her level, so it overrides her normal stats and makes them better, it also grains her the ability to use Lightning, Ice, Fire and - oddly enough - blood as an element to attack.

And when Lily actually used one of those elements to make a projectile...

It was so massive, that it blew Artoria back abit.

...

"Okay, we have our Nuker." Artoria blandly says, even she couldn't get the same result without alot of MP, and that only costed around 50 MP for Lily.

After that, they look at their guild quest.

"Let's see... there's that Monthly quest which is... Make a 'Guild Item', what ever that means." Micheal said to everyone.

"I think it's like an item that everyone in the guild can use, like maybe... An item that grants buffs, or something?" Rebekah theorised, getting nods from the others.

"I say we should do it, it could be fun!" Lily smiled at everyone, slightly melting their hearts at her innocents, and getting agreements from everyone.

They head outside the dungeon and ask Lelin at her stand what counts as a Guild Item.

"Oh, well... More often then not it's a buff item or a set of armour anyone can wear, though rarely it can be a collection of consumables or a weapon. As to how to make one, everyone in the guild needs to pinch in one materials and help in some process of the crafting."

They nod to her in thanks before they start to talk about what item to make.

"None of us have a crafting skill, so it'll probably be pretty weak compared to stuff we could get from Luna or even Lelin. I say for a test run, we make a consumable." Vincent says, getting an agreement from everyone.

"Now, what kind of consumable...?" Artoria thinks for a moment at Matthew's question before speaking up.

"We should probably make a potion of sorts, one that can restore HP and maybe grants a temporary buff." they nod, it was a good idea, so they purchase a Potion book from Lelin, as well as an ingredient guide, and start getting to researching.

They spent a majority of the night researching and sending messages over Discord to inform the other members what they found. and before they realised it, it was 10 PM, and Artoria needed to put Lily to sleep for school tomorrow.

* * *

They wake up the next morning and after making breakfast, having a shower and dropping Lily off at school, she flies to her school and lands by her friends.

"Alright, so anything interesting happen while I was taking care of Lily?" Micheal nods to her question, and explained a theory of a potion he wanted to try making.

It would be a healing potion that granted a minor boost to all stats, and would increase maximum MP for a short period of time, which Artoria honestly didn't need, but not everyone had a near infinite amount of MP.

She decided to look at the list of items required to see if she had any in her inventory, _'Giant's Blood, powder of Dragon Bones mixed with Lich Acid, Magic Glass and Dragons Eye...'_ to be fair, she was pretty sure she had at least a Dragon eye in her inventory, but no bones, so going back to the Dragon Mountain dungeon would probably be her job.

She decides to double check her inventory just in case, "Alright, I have a Dragon Eye in my inventory right now, I say we split up in teams of three, one DPS, one tank, and one ranged, I can handle DPS with Lily doing range. So Micheal, do you want to join us?" she asked.

"Ah... Actually, I want to go with Rebekah, if that's okay." she nods, "Alright, me, Matthew and Lily will be going to Dragon Mountain to collect Dragon bones and eyes, you, Vincent and Rebekah will go ask Lelin about Magic Glass and a Giant Dungeon to get some of their blood, we'll focus on the Lick Acid last as they may be a boss." they nod in agreement.

They go about the school day and afterwards, Artoria takes Matthew to Lily's school and explain to her what they had planned, so after answering a few questions from Lily, they head off towards Dragon mountain, "We technically only need to kill one, and instead of harvesting it we need to pull the bones out." Matthew said.

"Yeah... But how are we going to crush it into a fine powder?" Artoria questioned, Lily speaks up, "Um... Wouldn't Lelin have a tool for that?" They look at her for a moment before nodding in agreement, "Good thinking Lily." Artoria reaches up and pats Lily on the head.

"Ehehe..." she seemed to enjoy it.

They enter the dungeon and walk until the first plateau, there were three dragons, and deciding they didn't need to deal with this, Artoria loads 5,000 MP into each shot and head shots each of them, instantly killing them.

"... Did you even need us?" he asked, Artoria looked slightly sheepish at that before she heads an idea.

"I have an idea." they harvest the bones from the body and since they couldn't harvest the remains, they burn them, after that they continued up the mountain for a few minutes before reaching the top, Matthew seemed pretty hesitant, but when he saw what was there, he calmed down.

Unlike the mountain sized Robot dragon from before, it was a house sized dragon that was actually alive and not a robot.

"Wait... What was that thing we thought before?" Matthew asked, Artoria shrugs, "I don't know, I do know however, That if we get the bones of that thing, we're gonna get some good quality powder for our potions." she stats, getting agreement from her two companions.

She readies her guy, Matthew uses some skills to buff himself to make himself more durable and deal more damage, while Lily was preparing her sword, which she was still getting used to, but was confident enough in her ability to use it.

"Go!" they rush forward, Matthew closing the distances first and nailing the dragon in the face with his fist, which dealt enough force to stagger it, Lily followed in with a few cuts to the neck, since that was the part with the least scales, and Artoria shot at the wings to make sure it couldn't fly off.

It glares at them before trying to breath fire onto them, but Artoria got in the way and while the flames did hurt, her fire manipulation skill made her only take 50% of fire damage, so using this knowledge, she runs through the flames and slams her gauntlet into the top of the mouth, closing it and the excess fire that was released started bloating the dragon up before it stops.

"Matthew, Lily, now!" she yells out, the two now before Matthew carries Lily in his arms and jumping into the air, using his flexibility and a skill he spins himself around while Lily built up mana before Matthew throws Lily at the dragon, on collision Lily explodes in a mass of Ice and Lightning.

After making sure Lily was okay, they check the dragon, about as dead as on could get with being impaled by ice multiple times and being fried by lightning.

"Wow, I surprised you two managed to pull off a combo move so easily." Artoria commented while they were extracting the skin, flesh and bones for both the potion, armour, and possibly food, who knows what this thing will taste like?

"Well, when you called out, my body just kind of moved on it's own, like it already knew what to do... Maybe it's a skill you have?" Matthew commented and then questioned.

Artoria shakes her head, "No, I have nine skills, and I know what they all do... Maybe we should ask Lelin about this when we leave?" they nod in agreement and gather in silence, after getting everything they could they they venture down.

"I'm gonna guess crafting with materials we get from this are highly priced, but it sucks that if we gather materials like this, we can't get EXP to level up." that was the main down side to doing this, maybe they should of hunted a few normally to get some levels?

They exit the dungeon and ask Lelin about what happened, so she answers after being paid 5K.

"Well, Artoria, since your a Greater Demon, and technically a race above humans, if you ordered them to do something, they do it because of their bodies instincts telling them too, if you do it correctly, you can give subconscious orders to people in the midst of battle."

That was incredibly useful to know for later dates, but Lelin wasn't done, "Also, the more you advance above humans, the more difficult it is to resist an order from you, so once you start getting to those levels you start suggesting it instead of telling them to do it."

That was slightly unnerving, "What is the race level ups for demons?" she wanted to know this.

"That'll cost you... one hundred million dollars." Lelin says with a smug face, while shocked, Artoria didn't push it anymore and left with Matthew and lily in tow.

They arrive at the guild base and after a couple of minutes Rebekah, Micheal and Vincent arrived, they place the materials they had so far on the table, dragon's eyes, dragon bones, Giant's blood and six Magic Glass containers.

"All we need to do now is grind up the bones into powder, and gather Lich Acid." that stumped them the most, how would a Lich produce acid? Is it like the marrow in it's bones? Was it from a spell? Or something else?

"Let's focus on finding a Lich first." Rebekah noted, getting the agreement of the others, while it was still after school, it was only 4 PM, so they had another hour and a half to get the rest of the materials.

They go to Lelin and pay 2.5K for info on where they can find a Lich boss, and since not all of them had insane speed and jump height, they had to run there, taking a total of 20 minutes to get to it.

They get the info, which was the fact the recommended level was 85, 15 higher then Artoria, but only a few above Lily, and considering Artoria is about as strong as a level 100 or above, it should be fine.

Oh, also it had undead monsters, and was an underground ruin.

They buy some flashlights in case the ruins weren't lit up, and travel inside.

**(A/N: This is the first one I actually made a floor plan of, so it'll be more in-depth then the others before it.)**

It was incredibly dark, so they turn on the flashlights, Vincent and Artoria had theirs attached to their guns, Micheal had his on his shield, Rebekah couldn't attach it to her knives, so she had to go with only one knife, Lily's sword was one handed, and unless she needed to do spells, didn't need to do anything special other then hold the flashlight.

Matthew's weapon were literally his gauntlets, so he just held it like normal.

They look around, it was creepy to say the least, cobwebs all along the ceiling, some ruinic alphabet along the walls, coffins lined the left side of the room and a table was in the middle of the room, and there seemed to be some sort of podium for speaking in the far right corner.

In the middle of the wall farthest away from them was a slightly broken down door.

"Alright, everyone search the room, we don't want to chance missing anything." they nod before looking around, Artoria was the only person not grossed out enough to actually search the coffins, which had decaying corpses inside.

In one of the four coffins she could find, the body inside wore a ring, which was named 'Undead Ring' and granted a slight damage reduction from undead creatures by 10%, which was given to Matthew since he was a hands on (Literally) fighter but didn't have the defence like Micheal.

After not finding anything else, they venture off towards the door, on the outside they here rattling of bones, which meant skeletons, and they also heard some groaning.

Artoria decides to take point and shot the Zombies in the head with enough damage to kill them, and before the Skeleton got to her Matthew punched it's skull so hard it shatters.

They harvest the three zombies and skeleton, getting a total of 8,500 EXP, which divided by 6 before going to the whole party.

They look around, deciding to inspect the surroundings, to the left from where they entered were two doors and a painting of a man in robes, and to the right was a statue of the man and another door.

"Alright, seems like the paths split, considering the recommended level for this place I suggest we all stick together, so let's put it to a vote, the far left one with be option 1, the closer left one will be option 2, and the door to our right will be option three." Artoria states before speaking up, "Those in favour of option 1?"

Rebekah, Matthew and Lily puts up there hands, "Those in favour of option 2?" Artoria and Micheal raise their hands, and they glance at Vincent, "3?" he raises his hand, clearly annoyed he was the only one to vote the third option.

"Okay, that means we go to 1, 2 and then 3, surprisingly in order." Artoria says, to which everyone agrees before they walk into the room.

It seemed to be a weapons storage room, and a zombie was in there holding a normal looking sword, Lily decides to practice parrying with it since it was slow and slightly weaker then her, while she did that the others searched the shelves.

They only find two swords that were interesting, as the rest were normal. These were 'Undead Swords', which has a special affect of stealing 10% of his HP from an enemy when struck, so Micheal was pretty interested in that, and while his Dragon Flame Sword did more damage, continuous healing would be better for a tank.

They decide to sell the other one when they leave, as Lily didn't want to use it.

They exit the room and go into the next, inside it seemed to be an alter room for what could be sacrifices. Inside were two zombies wondering around and a Skeleton laying next to the Alter.

Vincent head-shots one of the zombies while Micheal tests out his new sword to get a feel for it on the other one, Rebekah goes to inspect the Alter but the Skeleton jumped up and grabbed her and bit on her, before Micheal shield bashed it off and stabbed through it's ribs until it couldn't move anymore before crushing the skull.

"Whoa Micheal, bit excessive, don't you think?" Artoria questions while Micheal looks away in slight embarrassment.

After finding nothing on the Alter, they leave and walk down the hall to the last door in this part.

They heard some low purring and skittering on the other side of the door, like, alot of it.

Artoria decides to walk in, and instantly pales, runs out, and closes the door behind her while sweating.

"Who the HELL thought Zombie and Skeleton SPIDERS were a good idea?!" Oh, right, Artoria suffers from Arachnophobia, that hasn't been a problem yet, has it?

The others didn't look so good either, Lily looked ready to freak out, Vincent was shifting nervously, the only person not really affected as Micheal.

They start talking about how Artoria is going to torch the room with fire magic just so they don't have to deal with them, but they don't notice Micheal walk in and walking back out with a Skeleton Spider that was the size of his torso, and it was trying to struggle free.

Artoria was the one to freak out the most, hiding behind everyone and actually crying, but Micheal speaks up in a serious tone.

"Artoria! If you don't learn to face your fears, it will only hinder you in the future! I'm not asking you to not be afraid, but to use that fear to fuel yourself to fight!" they stay silent for a moment before Artoria stepped around them and alittle closer, but she flinched when it tried stabbing her with it's blade like bone legs.

"A-Alright..." she takes her gunatleted arm and gulps before punching forward with all her might.

The spider skeleton shatters into pieces, and Micheal Harvested it for 2,000 EXP while Artoria recovered from hyperventilating.

Micheal places a hand on her shoulder, "How did that feel?" he asked softly, making Artoria think for a moment.

"It was... scary..." he nods, "Good, if you got past your fears by killing, then you wouldn't really be human anymore." he says, almost sagely before-

"Micheal, I'm not human, remember?" Artoria deadpans, making Micheal seem to recoil from an invisible attack from above.

"R-Right, Well you used to be human, so it still counts." he tries to, and fails to salvage the wise wisdom he had come up with.

...

"So all in favour of torching the rest?" Rebekah asked, getting agreement before Artoria burns the 7 other ones to a crisp, she made sure not to burn the room as it was the last one available, harvesting got them a total of 11,500 EXP, putting Artoria close to a level up, Micheal leveling up, Rebekah and Matthew were also close to a level up.

The room was a library of sorts, and after burning all of the cobwebs in the room they look at the books, after finding nothing of use they look around the giant table in the middle, which had eight tables...

...

Artoria was very tempted to see if she could steal the table and chairs and add them to the Guild room.

So after the middle of the room being emptied out by a certain demon, they venture off towards the only other door in the room, beyond it they heard groaning, so it was most likely zombies, They go in and Artoria momentarily freaks out at the fact the Zombies were infested with tiny zombie spiders before Lily nukes the three infested Zombies, which got a total of 9,000 EXP on harvest.

That got Artoria a level up, making her slightly stronger then before, in the hallway they had entered were a giant stone slab with words and pictures engraved into it about some abomination that is to end the world, and was sealed away by a powerful Necromancer.

There were two doors, one covered in cobwebs and the other wasn't, so wanting a break from spiders Artoria opted they go to the other door.

They got inside and easily killed two zombies, getting 3,000 EXP, and they look around to see it was a bedroom for multiple people, there were three bets in total.

They didn't see a need to explore the room more, but they did take the beds for themselves, since they were comfy.

They go back out and gulp before Artoria burns the abnormally thick cobwebs before peaking in by opening the door alittle.

**[MINI-BOSS] Giant Skeletal Spider LV90  
****The Abomination**

She slowly closes the door.

"Lets just... not do that..." she was not mentally prepared to fight a truck sized spider skeleton.

They walk back into the library and explore for a few minutes before Artoria gives up, as the Spider was probably their only way forwards.

They rush into the room after steeling themselves and looking at the giant Skeletal Spider looking down on them from it's web, there were 9 Skeleton Spiders jittering around the place.

Micheal and Matthew were up front, Rebekah was going to use Water magic to help defend them, Vincent was at the back of the room with Artoria while Lily was switching between attacking the minion skeleton spiders and blasting magic at the mini boss.

They continued for about five minutes before finally defeating it, they harvest all of the monsters, the 9 Skeleton Spiders gave 18,000 EXP in total, while the Giant one gave 20,000 EXP and also dropped a sword, it was named 'Giant Skeleton Spider Blade', which was a mouthful.

Everyone got a level up from that fight.

It was alittle less powerful then the Undead Sword Micheal had, but it made up for the Life steal effect being better, and also having a build up effect to wrap enemies in webs when hit by it, so he took it and equipped it, since no one else wanted it.

Artoria gets to work burning the webs, after doing so they look around and find no way to another room, they groan before back tracking through the entire place and checking everything they could, after five minutes they find a few cracks in the wall of the first corridor.

Artoria decides to punch into it and it crumples down from the force, they cheer at the fact they found a new path before exploring down the path.

It was rather short, and turned to the right abit, but it led to a stone brick wall, so they break through to find a storage room of sorts, but instead of weapons it seemed to be tools used in magical crafting.

After looking around they found a set of Magic Tools used for crafting items, so they take them since they need them for crafting the potions.

There were also a few small creatures in glass containers, there were five in total, but they decide that they wouldn't get good EXP from it.

They go into the hallway from the door in the room, and kill two zombies and find themselves next to two doors, but one had a switch that intrigued Lily, so she pulled it.

The door raised to reveal... The Library?

"So a hidden passageway, I guess if we looked around the Library some more we would of found the switch for this door in there." Rebekah deducts while everyone agrees with her.

They look at the other door, and got a small, eerie feeling from it, but went inside anyways

Inside were three skeletons wondering around, so they kill them easily.

in the room were three tables with humanoid creatures strapped down to them, they were infected and turned into zombies, to to free them of the pain they must be feeling, they killed them,

There was also a shelf, but there was nothing on it.

There was another door, so they entered it and were in another hallway, there was a statue of the same man the painting and statue were of before, but it was older, as the another painting, and by the end of the hallway there was a stone slab recounting the tale of the Necromancer.

There were two doors, one at the end and one off to the side.

They walk into the door on the side and find it to be a bedroom, a rather fancy one in fact.

They look on the bed to see... A Female zombie tied to it in... let's not finish that sentence...

After killing and harvesting it, it was only worth 600 EXP, they look around and find nothing interesting.

They exit and enter the door at the end of the hallway.

There were four giant zombies, two of which were killed instantly by Artoria and Vincent, Micheal managed to handle one on his own, but had to regen after, and Lily and Matthew man-handled the last one.

That got them a total of 20,000 EXP, getting them all another level up.

The room was a small, personal library of sorts, the books appear to be used recently, which may of meant they were approaching the boss room.

In one of the shelves they find a book named 'Guide to Necromancy' which was actually a skill book they could use to learn necromancy, so Artoria decides to pocket it for now to either sell or use later.

They go past the bookshelves and find a door, opening reveals a large hallway with a massive hole in the middle of it, so Artoria takes turns flying everyone over it, they look at the door and figure this would be the boss room, so they make sure to use the stat points they've got to strengthen themselves for the fight ahead.

Artoria glances at her stats.

**Name: Artoria Bell  
Level: 63 (4,677 EXP to Level Up)****  
Title: [Silver Winds]  
Race: Greater Demon**

**HP: 5,650/5,650  
HPR: 1,412 HP/m  
MP: 16,875/16,875  
MPR: 17,634 MP/m**

**STR: 180  
VIT: 210 (250) +40  
DEX: 100 (160) +60  
INT: 300 (360) +20%  
WIS: 200 (220) +10%  
LUCK: 30 (50) +20**

**Elemental Affinity  
Fire: 25**

**Points: 91  
Money: $90,000**

She didn't want to spent all of her stat points in case of when she reaches the level for her next Racial advancement and don't meet the stat requirement, she can actually up the stats needed for it.

They all mentally prepare themselves before rushing in in their, slightly natural combat stances.

The room was decayed, and looked ready to fall apart, the roof was held up with six pillars, at the end of the room was a massive throne that housed a massive Skeleton in robes.

**[BOSS] Asgrid LV120  
****The Greatest Necromancer Lich**

"**You are foolish to come here, Treasure Hunters... I welcome you to my tomb. And soon to be yours too.**" that actually sounded abit badass...

Asgrid waves his hand and 12 Giant Zombies and Giant Skeletons appear while he stood up and grabbed the air next to him, in a flash of darkness a scythe appears in his hand.

"Matthew and Micheal, you two focus on distracting the Minions! Vincent, assist them from afar! Rebekah, you know what you have to do. Lily, with me!" Artoria orders

"Right!" the five of them shouts in unison before splitting, Rebekah jumping into the pillars and seeming to disappear, Artoria rush towards the Lich with Lily behind her, Micheal and Matthew keeping the minions off them (And Matthew suplexing a giant zombie), while Vincent managed to get a good vantage point in the front of the room and started sniping the minions to assist his brother and Micheal.

Asgrid jumps forward and swings down with his scythe, which was met with Lily's Blade supported by Artoria's insane strength, Lily and Artoria tilted the blade to the side so the Scythe went down into the ground.

Artoria jumped up and punched the Lich in the face hard enough to stagger it for a moment, Lily channelled some magic into her sword as Artoria backed off, when Lily swung it multiple blades form and cut at the Lich, dealing around... 2% of it's HP?!

"We're in for the long one, aren't we?!" Artoria yells out in frustration before entering Demon Form and Activating Demonic Aura, she also just realised that she was basically able to hold these two skills indefinitely.

She grins at the boost in power she got before flying forward and landing on the shoulder of the Lich and aims right at the bones connecting the shoulder blade to the rest of the body before firing.

She raises her arm quickly to block a punch directed at her, sending her a far bit back before she uses her wings to stop herself in the air and stabilise.

She checks the damage she dealt, around 3% so in total they've dealt 5% to it, she checks her own HP while Lily distracted it, that punch alone did 1,000 damage, and considering the 250 she lost from the deflect before, this boss was incredibly tough, and was meant to be tackled with more then a dozen people, not just six.

_'Should we try escaping? If the others got it with that scythe, they may die... LILY!'_ she rushes forward as fast as she could to push Lily out of the way of the scythe, and gasped in pain as it stabbed into her stomach, she quickly took it out and jumped back while holding her stomach.

_'HOLY SHIT THAT DID 4,000 DAMAGE!'_ this was really bad, she was at 400 HP now, she could only survive a deflect once, thankfully she regens fast, so after a few minutes she'll be back to full, but then...

She glances up to see everyone fighting monsters, some being overwhelmed while others were handling it, she looked up to the ceiling before giving a subtle nod.

From the ceiling came Rebekah, who landing a sneak attack on the Lich's back of the neck, which did... a total of 25% of it's HP.

_'Alright, 30% of the way.'_ Artoria flies forward and grabs Rebekah and get away from the Lich.

"Are you okay Artoria?!" Rebekah asked in shock and fear.

"Yeah... The wounds already closed, I'm low on HP, so I'll stick to ranged attacks for now, go hide until you can sneak attack again." Rebekah nods and climbs up to the ceiling once more.

Artoria raises her gun and fires a few bullets at the Lich, each only going about 0.5%, but the number of them in total brought it up to 7%.

The Lich had charged at her, so she flies up and keeps shooting, trying to keep the Aggro on her so no body gets hit by the scythe and dies, she was the only one who could take that scythe when she was at Full HP and still live.

She kept flying around it to keep avoiding it's attack for about a minute before flying in and hitting it hard in the chest with her gauntlet, knocking the metaphorical wind out of the Lich, but he retaliates soon after with a swing of it's scythe, which she manages to dodge.

She keeps on attacking, switching from melee and range to avoid certain attacks, but once it's HP hit 50%, a dark green aura surrounds it and they get blasted back by the Lich, by this time Matthew, Micheal and Vincent has dealt with the minions, so they came over but made sure to keep a distance, as they saw the damage it dealt to Artoria.

But Lily was younger, and didn't know better, so she tried getting close to attack it.

"LILY, GET BACK!" Artoria yelled out, but she was too late as the Scythe impales Lily through the chest, after a few moments all five of them see a panel pop up.

**Lily Hood Bell has been killed.**

Artoria watches as Lily's body fades to red mist.

...

"Li...ly...?" Artoria falls to her knees as her Demon form and Demonic aura fades as tears stream down her cheeks.

The others tried getting her attention, but she was too distracted with the massive Lich in the room firing blast after blast of Acid... Hey, at least they know how to get it now...!

_'Lily... No...'_

_"She's been a better mother to me then my real one, so... Yeah, she's my mother."_

_"I say we should do it, it could be fun!"_

_"Oh? You didn't tell me you had an adorable friend, Lily."_

...

"Bastard..."

**Warning, Emotional Distress will leave Player vulnerable afterwards.**

"I'll kill you..."

**WARNING, Blood-lust exceeding human limits.**

"Why do I need human limits? **I'M A DEMON!**" she yells out as a massive force of energy surrounds her

**[Demonic Aura] Temporally set to MAX level, after 1 minute player will pass out with 1 HP remaining.**

"**I'LL RIP YOU TO SHREDS, ASGRID!**"

**MP momentarily overflowing, MP cost -50% for 1 minute**

Artoria flew directly at him and used her gauntlet to slice at him, dealing a total of 10% and sending him sailing into a wall, the impact causing the ground to shake and dealing 3% damage.

She was on him in an instant, she held her gauntlet palm out towards him and fire begins to build up, she also used Gravity magic to condense it into a more fine fireball before blasting it into his face, dealing 25%.

She jumps back and let's him recover for a moment, he gets up and see Artoria just staring at him, emotionless before she speaks.

"**I should thank you, Asgrid... After becoming a Demon, I didn't think a part of me could hold so much hatred for one being... Allow me to share you, my hatred...**" she held her arms up and a massive ball of flames form, it was about the size of a shipping container before it starts condensing down.

Asgrid, namely because he didn't have the parts too, didn't piss himself at the raw magical energy in the air around the Demon girl, the blood-lust, hatred and power was making it incredibly hard to move, so he watched in horror as she lowered her arm to aim the now condensed ball of flames towards him before firing.

That happens next could only be described as a... metric fuck ton of flames firing as a beam of pure heat and hatred towards it's victim.

This attack, had the Lich been at full HP, would of dealt 50% of it's HP.

She watch the flames die down as she looks at the charred bones and ash of the object of all of her hate, before grinning and falling back, passing out.

* * *

Artoria found herself in a dark void, across from her was a blond hair and dull blue eyes, but who was he...?

"Wait... Isn't that... me?" Artoria questions herself before reaching out for it, but the boy seemed to move away, as does the memories of the times she spent as him.

* * *

She wakes up to find herself in a hospital room, she looked around to see... Micheal, Matthew and Vincent sitting in chairs sleeping, and in the spare bed was Rebekah, but oddly enough she let a weight on her chest, who could it possibly be-

...

"Lily...?" she stared at the familiar black mop of hair, pale white skin, and same face.

Artoria began breaking down, crying as she started to hold Lily tight, hopping to whatever god was out there that this wasn't a hallucination and that Lily was still alive.

Lily soon woke up after that and realised what was happening, so she hugs Artoria back.

"I'm so glad your safe, mom." that single word seemed to bring an infinite amount of joy to her heart, the small commotion woke the others up, and Micheal speaks up.

"Leader, you're finally up. You gave us all a hell of a scare when you passed out with only one HP, he had to carefully carry you to the hospital for you to get taken care of..." Artoria stares at him for a moment, he seems to get the message.

"You've been asleep for a whole week." her eyes widen in shock, her letting her anger get the best of her...

"Also, you're probably gonna ask about Lily." Matthew interrupts her thoughts, "We were just as surprised, after dropping you off at the hospital we decided to go to the Guild Room to pay our respects, and low and behold, Lily came charging in looking for you, after getting a small explanation, we managed to deduce that Lily is Semi-Immortal."

At Artoria's confused face he continues, "Upon death, if she had got to sleep within the past 24 hours, on death she will return to that location, the only down side is loosing any EXP to the next level. So it's very possible to kill her, as it is a one time use after rest kind of thing. And it only activates in dungeons, so..."

"Dying in the real world would..." he nods to her half asked question, Artoria holds Lily tight to her, "I'm so glad you're still alive..." she was crying for about an hour in joy at her daughter still being alive.

They stay like that for a few minutes before Micheal coughs, "Also, I feel like you should see this." he hands Artoria a small hand mirror and points to his neck, she tilts the mirror to get a view at her own neck.

On the right side of her neck, on the skin connecting from the neck to her should was an odd black mark, she reaches up to touch it, but it didn't hurt or anything.

"We don't really know what it is, since you're the only demon around, and you're the only one with it, the only thing people can figure out is that it affects Demons, how does it feel?" Micheal asks.

Artoria points and pinches it for abit, "It doesn't really hurt, but I'm having trouble feeling much touch from it... Maybe it's a side effect of what happened?" They all think for a moment, the amount of energy she was giving off was insane compared to what her body could reasonably handle, so maybe it burned at some of her flesh.

"Well, whatever that injury is, it's covering most of your right shoulder and abit of the upper right parts of your... chest." Micheal looks away, slightly embarrassed, "Don't worry, only female nurses checked your body for anything else."

Artoria absentmindedly nodded.

* * *

Next time on The World of Games  
_"What is it, Demon blood bag?"_

_"Hey Fen... FETCH!"_

_"You and your guild-mates would be pretty pissed if you got nothing out of it, so consider that fourth place."_

* * *

**Stats**

**Name: Artoria Bell  
Level: 77 (3,377 EXP to Level Up)****  
Title: [Silver Winds]  
Race: Greater Demon**

**HP: 6,910/6,910 (R: 2,114 HP/m)  
MP: 20,725/20,725 (R: 436 MP/s)**

**STR: 236  
VIT: 266 (306) +40  
DEX: 100 (160) +60  
INT: 370 (444) +20%  
WIS: 242 (266) +10%  
LUCK: 30 (50) +20**

**Elemental Affinity  
Fire: 25**

**Points: 161  
Money: $90,000**

**Title**

**[Silver Winds - Guild]  
A Title to signify you are a member of the Silver Winds Guild.  
Rank: Owner  
Boost: +40 VIT, +60 DEX, +20 LUCK**

**Traits**

**[Super Genius - Rank: 5 - Trait]  
The player has a perfect memory and will gain 5 INT and 3 WIS per level.**

**[Greater Demon - Rank: 2 - Racial Trait]  
The player gains an extra skill slot and gains 4 STR and VIT per level.  
Automatically gives Skill: [Demonic Aura]**

**Equipment**

**[Dragon Flame Magic-Pistol - Rarity: Legendary]  
A Handgun with the power of a fire dragon within.  
****Attachment: [Flashlight]  
\- 1 MP = 40 Damage  
\- +75% Effectiveness with fire  
Cost: Varies**

**[Demonic Fenrir Gauntlet - Rarity: Legendary]  
A left handed gauntlet that was made with demonic energy and infused with a Fenrir's Soul  
-Can only be equipped by Demonic entities.  
-+1,000 Slash damage with claws  
-+100 Blunt damage with punch  
-+300 Defence with blocking**

**[Magic Tools - Rarity: Rare]  
****A set of tools used in crafting special items  
****\- +50% Duration of effects from items ****crafted  
****\- +25% Better Effects from items crafted **

**Skills**

**[Observe [Tier 1] (Active)]  
Allows the user to observe the stats of allies and owned items.**

**[Demon Form (Active) LV40 99.99%]  
Transforms the user into a demonic version of themselves, strengthening them physically  
\- +65 STR  
\- +130 VIT  
\- +65 DEX  
Cost: 60 MP per second**

**[Demonic Aura (Active) LV17 82.26%]  
Strengthens the users body by flowing Demonic Aura through it.  
\- +34% STR, DEX, VIT  
Cost: 216 MP per second**

**[Handgun Proficiency (Passive) LV50 19.25%]  
Increases the user's proficiency with Handguns  
\- +100% Accuracy with Handguns  
\- +200% Damage with Handguns**

**[Mana Affinity (Passive) LV75 18.94%]  
A skill that allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it better.**  
**\- +375% increase in MP recovery rate.**  
**\- +150% increase in total MP amount.**  
**\- +150% increase in magic attack.**  
**\- +150% increase in magic defence.**  
**\- +750% increase in MP related skill effects.**

**[Ancient Knowledge (Passive) LV20 73.19%]  
A skill that shows your understand of the knowledge of old  
-Able to remember 20% of the Necronomicon without needing to think about it.  
-+20% INT  
-+10% WIS**

**[Mana Manipulation (Active) LV58 18.82%]  
Allows the user to manipulate their mana into attacks or defense  
\- +136% increase to Magic Attack/Defence  
Cost: Varies**

**[Fire Manipulation (Active) LV59 9.16%]  
Allows the user to transform their mana into fire for multiple uses  
\- +138% Effectiveness with Fire  
\- +59% Resistance to Fire  
Cost: Varies**

**[Gravity Manipulation (Active) LV18 18.24%]  
Allows the user to alter gravity with their mana  
\- +56% Effectiveness with Gravity  
Cost: Varies**


	7. First Wave

**A/N: Another chapter~ And the plot finally thickens.**

**PanKeRio: **Really? So far that was the longest chapter, although I may of rushed through the dungeon abit.

Also, a small hint as to why Lily was so quick to saying Artoria was a better mother, the Revenant Skill she got had the sub text 'It is made from pure loneliness', more on that later.

Also, more on the 'obsession' as you call it later, no spoilers~

There are plans to expand on characters in later chapters, like each of their past, stuff like that, as of the moment, we've finally are getting close to where I was with my Pre-written stuff before uploading, so the reviews will be more impactful now since their info will be taken into account.

The dungeon was actually based off another story I had written, but never posted 'A Tale of an ancient Necromancer that held back a Great abomination, due to his death, is essence was imbued into his tomb, infecting all and turning them into under. Which he must command to keep the Abomination at bay.' It was a good practice write, if anything else.

And I'll get to posting on Fate of a Gamer this week, probably Wednesday, and I'll try the misc. Anime thing, _even if it isn't based on an Anime, actually, kind of based on Solo Levelling now that I think about it, ever read that?_

* * *

Last time on The World of Games  
_"Well, whatever that injury is, it's covering most of your right shoulder and abit of the upper right parts of your... chest." Micheal looks away, slightly embarrassed, "Don't worry, only female nurses checked your body for anything else."_

_Artoria absentmindedly nodded._

* * *

**Chapter 7: First Wave**

* * *

After that, Artoria got discharged from the hospital and the Silver Winds Guild members talk alot until they arrive at the guild room, they had all the required materials, so they might as well finish this quest as soon as possible.

"Alright, what's first?" Artoria asked while Rebekah looked at the recipe for the potion, "Um... let's see... Grinding up the bones would be good, since those are needed in step three." Artoria nods before getting a Mortar and Pestle from the Magic Tool Set in her inventory and took out some Dragon King Bones, since she wanted the first batch to be the best they could be.

While she starts grinding them up, Rebekah instructs Matthew and Lily to work on mixing the Lich Acid and Giant's Blood together until it's a redish brown, Micheal and Vincent were told to dry the Dragon eyes as best they can, while she cleaned the 14 magic glasses they had gathered over the week.

Once the bones were grinded, Artoria went to help with drying the eyes with some fire magic, which worked pretty well, Rebekah asked from abit of help with the magic glass bottles, so after that, step two was ready to go.

"Alright, we need to boil the mixed Lich Acid and Giant's Blood combined to get all of the rotten and ill substances out of the mixture." they look at the metal cauldron before looking at Artoria, who was the only person with fire magic in the room.

So after that, and the mixture ending up to be a white substance (For some reason), it was time for step three.

"Pour the Dragon Bone Powder into the batch at a slow rate while stirring until the mixture is a a light yellow." they did that for about 30 minutes before it turned yellow, they stir it for about 5 more minutes before getting the dragon eyes, that were about as big as their fist.

"Next is to drop the eyes in one at a time, and wait a minute, as the liquid dissolves the eyes within a minute, if the mixture doesn't turn red, repeat until it does." so two Dragon King eyes later, they see it turn a light green.

"Hold on, did we mess up?" Rebekah rereads the recipe while Artoria went and used Observe on it.

Two things happened, firstly, Observe got a Tier up, and second was the description of the liquid.

**[Dragon Life Liquid - Rarity: Rare]  
****A special liquid crafted with the finest of dragon materials, however, since the other parts were lacking, their effects are slightly lessened.  
****This potion was made by: [Silver Winds]  
****\- +50% VIT for 30 minutes  
****\- +20% MP for 30 minutes  
****\- +10% STR for 30 minutes  
****\- Recover 50% of HP & MP**

Artoria relays the info to them, and they cheer that it worked before they bottle it all up into the 14 potions they had, each of the members got two, while they'd sell the other two to Lelin and Luna to learn the prices of them.

Lelin was willing to give 10k a bottle because of the effect would be in high demand since not alot of people who focus on potions have the power to get good materials, and Luna was willing to put the two bottles up for Auction tonight, but she would start the bid at 5k and let some poor sucker pay more for it then Lelin would sell it for while they get 75% of the pay.

During the meeting with Luna, Artoria noticed something on Matthews hand, namely his finger.

"Hey Matthew? What's that ring? It's not the Undead one we found in the dungeon." He looks at her for a moment before seeming to get a face of realisation, "Right, you passed out as soon as the boss was killed. we need to fill you in."

They explained to her about the Lich's treasure room, and how it had $60,000 inside, at that moment Micheal gave her $10,000, as it was her cut of the pay, and how they found some gold bars and the Ring Matthew was wearing.

It was a 'True Undead Ring', which made him - compared to the other ring, much more defended against Undead attacks, it negated 25% of damage from Undead, and also made him immune to disease from Undead.

That caused her to panic as she didn't know they could get diseases from them, but Matthew only said they'd need to spend a total of 4 hours in an undead dungeon before it starts taking effect.

"They sold the Undead Ring to me, and got 20k on Auction, so I'm sure that ring will go for alot more." Luna seemed to glare from behind her mask, Matthew laughs at her, "I've told you, I ain't selling this until I find one better."

The Vampire nods before taking the potions, "If you want to watch, I'll set up the Auction tonight. During Auctions nametags are disabled, so if you hide your identity no one will find out who you are."

That was useful to know, "Thanks Luna. But do you mind if I ask a question?" Luna looks at Artoria, who had spoken up, "What is it, Demon blood bag?" oh... that was abit disturbing.

"Well, I'm just curious as to how the black market works, I know it's a pocket dimension of sorts, kind of like the Guild Building is, but this is a time sensitive one, since it's only opened around midnight. How does that work? If I were to fly around the world, could I enter a second time?"

Luna shakes her head, "No, that's not possible, because The Black Market bends time and space so that every time it's midnight within 24 hours is the same time in my market."

Artoria thinks for a moment, "Oh, so if I entered here at midnight, but it's nine PM for a friend elsewhere, even if three hours pass until they can enter, we'll still meet up at the same time?"

Luna smiles, "yes, you were quick to figure that out, sometimes people use it to transport contraband across the world in only a few minutes, however, you are the first people to know this, so keep it a secret, okay?" they nod in agreement.

Artoria thinks for a minute before speaking up, "Wait, how do you handle language barriers?"

"There's an auto translate spell casted on all parts of the Black Market, so no one is having troubles with that." oh, interesting, Artoria hasn't really worked on magic not used for combat, so that was new to her.

After that, the guild known as Silver Winds leaves and split off, since they wanted to do some things themselves for training.

Lily also wanted to go alone, which upset Artoria but she understood that she couldn't look after the girl forever.

So Artoria went to the forest where the boss was the Fenrir, namely because she wanted to test something out, namely that book 'Guide to Necromancy'.

She uses the book, and was surprised at the pop ups she got.

**Due to your nature as a Demon, [Necromancy] has turned into [Necromancy: Shadow]**

**Due to your incredibly high INT and WIS for your level, [Necromancy: Shadow] has turned into [True Necromancy: Shadow]**

**Due to trait [Super Genius], [True Necromancy: Shadow] has turned into [Ascended Necromancy: Shadow]**

After reading all of that, she opens her skills and looks at it

**[Ascended Necromancy: Shadow (Active) LV1 0.00%]  
****The fourth greatest form of necromancy, allows the user to raise the dead into their own personal army.  
****\- Units: 0/5  
****\- Uses the casters MP to regenerate raised units HP/MP  
****\- Units Starting level: 1  
****\- Add option [Arise] to defeated monsters**

It didn't seem to cost MP other then keeping them alive, which was useful, she goes to find the boss and quickly deals with him, she looked at the menu in front of her that said harvest, and now it has [Arise].

She decides that, considering the size of the monster, she should at least try it out, if it doesn't work, oh well.

"Arise." she says as her own shadow moves towards it and starts to consume it, her mind starts to fill with more knowledge at Necromancy, as to how the version she has just takes the Mana left by the soul and turns it into her minion.

She now looks at the large Shadow Fenrir before her, it was only level one, but it was still just as strong, if not abit stronger then it was before.

**Name Shadow Fenrir?**

She looks at it before thinking, she wanted something simple and easy to remember, "Fen." she smiles at the Fenrir wagging it's tail and looking like an overgrown puppy.

"Alrighty, come on, Fen." she turns around and walks away, but looks down to see Fen fade into her shadow.

_'So I can take them with me anywhere?'_ that was interesting to say the least, she wondered what the reactions of her guildmates and people at school will be if she just casually came to class riding Fen.

...

Why did she just get a quest to do exactly that?

* * *

The Auction was rather interesting, some rich kid came and paid a total of 120k for it, so they all got 20k from the Auction.

It was the day after, and she did abit of levelling up, namely to get Fen a few levels for himself.

It was time for her to get back to school, and after dropping Lily off and then jumping to her school she starts to think, it hasn't even been a month and the world had pretty much adapted to the change, in fact there was even news reports about people losing or getting jobs they couldn't before simply because of their stats or skills.

It also seemed that the government was cracking down on criminals who'd use the power for bad, namely offering the choice to pay them for hunting monsters, civil work, or if the criminals refuse, jail time.

Titanium being used as shackles in prison was also common now, considering how strong some people got.

Honestly, the changes this game was bringing about in the little over 3 weeks it's been a thing was something to behold.

She lands in her school and chat with her friends, when the bell goes she tells them to go ahead of her, after a minute after classes begin she summons Fen from her shadow and starts riding him to class.

Micheal was having an alright day, while he was weirded out at his Guild Leader telling them to go ahead, he assumed she had something to... do...

Is that a Black, flame like Fenrir?

Everyone's attention was on it now, but from the top that they couldn't see before, Artoria climbed down and went to the door and opened it, "Hi Sir, Sorry I'm late." she turns back to the Fenrir, "Fen, return." the Fenrir licks her before fading into her shadow.

"Artoria... The fuck?" Micheal's reaction was very expected.

"I got a friend." she says simply before sitting down and getting started on the school work.

After class, on the way to their next class Artoria was letting Fen walk around them, and he even brought a thin log to her like it was a stick.

"Hmm..." she takes it while the students were looking at her in slight fear and curiosity.

She activates Demon Form and Demonic Aura, "Hey Fen... FETCH!" she chucks it so hard there was a small shockwave from her, Fen was instantly chasing it, and she just figured out Fen could run in the air, she aimed for the sports field anyways, and she knew no one would be there in time for it to land, so no one was going to be harmed.

She causally exits her Demon form while her demonic aura fades and they go to class, which was Media again, and apparently they'd start working on their assessment this term, since it needed alot of time apparently.

Once she read over it, she found that they'll be making a short animation about whatever they want, she was gonna ask a question before hearing a bark outside, "Hold on." she gets up, the windows were curtained, so they couldn't see the Shadow Fenrir until she opened the door, the Fenrir was holding the log she threw in it's mouth.

She scratches behind his ears, "Good boy, Good boy..." after that, Fen returns to her shadow while she burns the log to nothing.

She sits back down, ignoring the surprised looks of people who haven't seen her Fenrir yet.

Artoria thinks to herself, her question was probably pointless now that she thought about it, she'll need to treat Fenrir to some Dragon meat for her not looking stupid in front of her classmates.

* * *

The school day went on like normal, and everyone decided to do their own things, so after Artoria picks Lily up, they go visit Lelin.

"Alright, what'll it be today, Arty?" Lelin says, picking another nickname for her, "Actually, I wanted to ask about the requirements for my next Racial Advancement. Have I met any yet?"

Lelin nods, "Yep, Level and Wisdom have been met, you still have everything else to do." Artoria nods, "How much would it cost to ask about the stats alone?" she asked this because she had no need to know the skill level, since the skill caps at the required level until she advances.

"Around... I'd say around 25k." Artoria looked shocked, "What? That's twenty thousand more then last time." Lelin shrugs, "What? It's a second advancement, and it makes you more powerful, I'd say it's a good trade." Artoria sighs before paying for it.

"You need both Strength and Vitality to be 300, Dexterity at 150, Intelligents at 400, and Luck at 50. You meet the requirement for Wisdom already." Artoria nods, memorising the information before buying Racial advancement book and using her spare stat points to nearly get to it, she only needed to level up once to get 5 points in INT to complete all of those.

_'Well, I'm off to grind Demonic aura to the max I can while getting my next level with Fen.'_ both Artoria and Lily goes to a low level dungeon, Lily actually decided to play with Fen, seeing as how he was her new dog, and the Fenrir was loving the daughter of it's master.

She simply shot a few monsters and harvested them to level up.

After about half an hour they leave to go home, where she actually picked up the Necronomicon once more to research and up her Ancient Knowledge skill, she did this while half meditating to slowly level up Mana Affinity.

By the end of the night, oddly enough the levelling went faster, and she was allowed to sleep normally, maybe something in the stats make it easier to level up skills?

After that, she was apparently eligible for a Racial Rank up, so she did so before going to sleep, making her an Arch-Demon.

She got a second set of horns and a second tail, plus was she taller?

Ignoring it and figuring it out tomorrow, she goes to sleep.

* * *

She gets up and get some odd stares from her parents, "Arth-Artoria, did you get taller?" Artoria looked slightly confused before realising that she came close to her mothers height, while her dad was still taller, she was about half a head shorter then her mom yesterday.

"Ah, right. I did a Racial Advancement, I actually didn't check the bonus for that." she opens her menu and pops the Trait part open to check it out.

**[Arch-Demon - Rank: 3 - Racial Trait]**  
**The player gains two extra skill slot and gains 5 STR and VIT per level.**  
**Automatically gives Skill: [Demonic Presence]**

_'Oh, more boost to STR and VIT, when will DEX get any love? and an extra skill slot is nice, and a new skill too.'_ she checks it out.

Oddly enough, the skill was already max level, and only granted better intimidation and chance to order other people around.

"Hmm, interesting." she closes it before stretching, and realising something, she didn't only get taller, her body got abit more... Voluptuous.

"Oh..." she looks down in annoyance, she wanted her body to stay the same, but if it meant getting stronger, then oh well.

"Well, I'm glad clothes change sizes to fit the person at least." the equipment menu was a wonderful thing at times like this.

After getting ready for school, and dropping Lily off with a kiss on the cheek before jumping off to school.

When she arrived, alot of people looked at her in mild shock, it seems her new strength was abit high, as she jumped too far, so a short walk back she gets to the spot her friends hang out at.

"Artoria?" Matthew asked in shock at his Guild Masters new appearance, Artoria grins at him, "Hello, yes I know I have a new appearance, don't mind that, I just became an Arch-Demon, so some changes were to happen." they nod to that while Artoria simply started talking as if nothing was wrong.

But they could feel it, the air around her was dense, but for some reason it didn't hinder them at all, in fact they'd be surprised if anyone other then them noticed, only because of their close relationship to Artoria is how they noticed.

Riley came around again, it's been awhile since she's seen him, "Oi, Artoria!" Oh, he called her by her name for once, that's new.

"Wanna make a new bet? I've been meaning to get back at you for that film bet we had." ah, this should be good.

She walks over to him and was abit taller, taller enough to that the tilt her head down slightly, "Alright, I'm guessing it'll be done by votes?" a nod from the human, "And what will we bet on it?"

"Simple, the one who loses will tell the other their darkest secret."

...

That... Was an interesting bet...

"Hmm... Nothing Material?" she asked, getting a nod, "Well, I see no point in it, so how about I add onto the bet? If you win, I'll give you... This." she pulls one of her Dragon Life Potions from her inventory, "A Dragon Life Potion, it increase Vitality, max MP and Strength for half an hour. It's something useful that you can only get through me or my guild, since we're the only ones to have crafted them."

Riley thinks for a moment before sighing, "What do you want if you win?" she thinks for a moment, she honestly didn't know.

"Alot of people hold back information on good dungeons, if you can fish out some good info on around... 10 high level bosses, that'll be enough, you literally have nothing to lose... Other then your dignity and time that is if I win."

She really just wanted more members of her... Shadow Army? What was it even called? whatever it was, if she got info on some good bosses, adding them to her army would be a great idea.

"Alright, deal." he says with a grin, before a pop up for a quest appears, it didn't give much of a reward, but it was nice that they had a reminder.

Whelp, now she had something to focus on after school, she'll also need something to animate with at home.

_'2D or 3D animation? 2D looks nicer but 3D would be easier.'_ she wasn't much of a drawing person, but she could probably learn fast, plus she didn't know any good 3D animation programs she could learn within two months, so 2D it is.

She got her phone and started searching types of 2D animation compatible with the one installed on the school computers, after finding none, she figures she'll just have to buy a personal copy so she can work on the project at home.

She goes about the school day normally, scare the few students who haven't seen Fen yet, and going home with Lily, who enjoyed playing video games while Artoria got to work on the Media Assessment.

Artoria worked on it all until dinner, after which she spent time with Lily and tried out her Demon Form.

She had two sets of wings, her horns got abit bigger, her tails alot sharper, and oddly enough her fingers turned into claws. She also had black scales run along her back where the spine is, but that was about it in changes.

So after activating Demonic Aura for a second to get it to the next level, she also just noticed that the MP required for the skills went up by a fair amount, probably to counteract her High MP recovery.

She waited until Lily was asleep before deciding to do more work on the animation, which took a majority of her night, but she got the first 30 seconds done in a rough outline, doing the proper outlines, colouring and making it flow better will have to come later.

She decides to go to sleep...

* * *

It was currently Saturday morning, and the members of Silver Winds were actually doing their first activity as a group of friends instead of monster hunting, which after three weeks, really tired some people out.

So the six were at a Cafe, and got some snacks with some Coffee (Or tea in Rebekah's case), and generally had a good time until they felt something... scarily familiar...

"You feel that?" All of them minus Lily nod, they get up and walk outside and look at the sky, which people were pointing too a portal in the sky in confusion before a giant, metal hand reaches out and grabs its edge.

"It's one of those things..." Artoria states before looking towards where it's above, "Well, looks like our day off is cut short, to my knowledge we're the only ones to have fought these things before." she rushes back inside and makes sure they've paid for the snacks and drinks before running outside and towards the park where the Mechanical monster would land.

They actually saw a few people, some they've seen around the guild hall too, Riley and his Crimson Blades were also there, but two other guilds, The Scavengers and Hells Keep were also there.

Artoria runs up to Riley, "hey, you know what that is?" he shakes his head, "Well, we don't either, but we've encountered one before." that got the attention of the three guilds there.

"What can you tell us about them?" she looks at a gruff, silver haired man with a jacket hung over his shoulders, Artoria speaks up, "Well, their mechanical in nature, and seem to come from a different reality, with the short glance I got into it before the portal closed last time we fought one, they're unlike anything in our world, and there was well over a dozen of them at least, if we're pushing it, possibly a hundred."

That got them all thinking, at least until they hear a roar from above, "It's coming down!" one of the Hells Keep members yell while everyone jumps back, everyone here was high levelled, the lowest being level 78, and highest being 117 from the leader of The Scavengers.

The monster crashes to the ground and roars out loud, It looked like a mixture of a humanoid being with bird winds and cat claws.

"Alright, get ready everyone!" The Scavenger leader yells out for all of them to hear, Artoria was already in her Demon Form, but not her Demonic Aura as she needed the MP it'd take for firing her gun and using magic.

She yells out as members of Hells Keep started blasting it mindlessly, "Its weakness are its joints! It'll take down the shield protecting it if you can hit one correctly!" "RIGHT!" the oddly unanimous agreement from so many people was alittle jarring.

She stayed back and kept blasting at it to keep it occupied, but members of The Scavengers were knocked down and about to be crushed, so she activates Demonic Aura and rushes to them and manages to barely stop the attack.

"Oi, you lot alright?" she asked with a small grunt, "Y-Yeah..." her brow twitches, "Then move your sorry ass! I ain't got infinite stamina or something!" she yells at them before they flinch and run back to safety, the moment their gone she frees her hands and jumps back to avoid being crushed.

The Leader of the Scavengers speaks up, as she landed next to him, "Thank you, I wouldn't of made it in time to save them myself. I'll pay you back later." she looks towards him before grunting.

"Save the thank you's for after we defeat this thing, unlike last time, I ain't letting one of these run away!" she flies forward and lands a heavy punch on it's face, knocking it down.

She glances at the HP, it was around 94%, and the shield was still up, so this one was much weaker then the last one she thought, but right now she was trying to locate a good weak-point to help disable the shield.

_'Damn, it's like it's... covering any weak-point... Of course! Because we exploited it once, obviously it'll be gone or less likely to be used next time we face one.'_ that meant these beings evolve as they escape, so it makes it infinitely more useful to kill them on the spot.

_'Perhaps... I have an idea!'_ She lands down next to the Scavenger and Hells Keep leaders, "Do any of you have lightning mages? Because I have the stupidest idea that it might just work... Or kill us all. It's 50/50 really." that got their attention, "Hells Guard, defend us!" "Scavengers, Frontal Guard!"

"Oh, you guys have call outs? Our guild just knows what to do when needed. I'm off track, anyways. Do you have any lightning users in your guilds here with us, and if so, how many?" she asked, "Hells Keep has 4 here today." "Us Scavengers got 7." she nods, "and Silver Winds got 1, so we have a total of 12, tell me, do you know what happens if you over charge a machine?"

"The battery will become unstable over time... That's brilliant! If it becomes unstable, that pesky shield may also be unstable and we can attack it!" Artoria nods to the Leader of Hells Keep.

"Well, it's either that, or it becoming more powerful then we can handle... Or straight up blowing up and killing us all. Like I said, 50/50." Artoria states casually while firing a few rounds at it, "Well, you got orders, right?" the two think for a moment before nodding.

"All lightning mages, Give it everything you've got and then some!" A massive string of lightning bolts from all directions hit it, the inside begins to glow purple as it shakes uncontrollably.

A moment later it knees down as a yellow fissile is around it before bursting, Artoria yells out, "Everyone, hit it with everything, it's shields are done!" she charges up a large shot and fires while everyone else does different kinds of magic on it.

The HP was dropping considerably and it turns and tries to run once it could move again, but was slammed into the ground by a slightly annoyed Artoria, "Oh no, one of you got away last time, I ain't letting another one go!" She uses Demonic Aura and Demon Form in tandem while beating down the head of the robot, after about six punches the monsters HP drops to 0 and it stops moving.

She looks up at the rift in the sky and glares at it, soon after, the rift was gone.

Everyone from the four guilds cheered at the defeat of something incredibly difficult.

The Scavenger and Hells Keep Leader along with Riley from Crimson Blades walk up to her as she exits her Demon Form, "It's thanks to you that we were able to defeat that monster, this victory belongs to you." the Hells Keep leader was formal.

"Ay, You did good lass, and while the plan wasn't without risk, you got a bad hand and played it best you can, and it lead to you wining." While informal, there was respect in the Scavengers leader's voice.

Riley was silent for a moment, "... If it wasn't for you, one of my friends could of died today... Thank you, Artoria." he bows to her slightly before standing up straight, "But this doesn't mean the bet's off! I'm definitely going to beat you!"

...

_'Oh god, please don't tell me he's a Tsundere...'_ she nods to the three of them, "Well, since we aren't in life or death anymore, how about we introduce each other?" they nod and she decides to go first, "I'm Artoria Bell, Leader of Silver Winds, and a demon. I specialise in ranged combat, but I'm strong enough to hold my own in close quarters."

Next was the Scavenger Leader, "I'm Colin Crevier, Leader of The Scavengers who focus on item hunting. I'm good at long range, but I'm best up close with my fist talkin'." ah, a brute that was smart was a scary one.

Hells Keep was next, "I'm am Adamus Nonius, Leader of Hells Keep and glorious defender of the Hell! I am unmoveable with my shield and sword!" a loud one, and... "Are you a Chuunibyou?" Riley asked casually, making the man flinch, as if attacked.

"Anyways, I'm Riley White, Leader of Crimson Blades, we focus in hunting anything we can, I'm good with a Katana and using fire magic up close." she nods before speaking up, "Weeb." it was his turn to flinch as if attacked.

Before anything else, a panel appears in all who dealt damage to the thing.

**Raid Complete**

**Participates: [Silver Winds], [The Scavengers], [Hells Keep], [Crimson Blades]**

**1st: Artoria Bell  
****2nd: Adamus Nonius  
****3rd: Colin Crevier**

**You're reward: $750,000, 200,000 EXP, first dibs on the Raid Bosses body.**

"Well, that was actually a game event? Maybe the game master made these monsters as a means to test the progress of players?" Riley reasons, getting nods from those around him.

"Well, Miss Artoria, since you got first place, it's your call what happens to the body." she nods before glancing at Riley, seems like he didn't get anything.

She sighs before a panel pops up in front of both of them, it was a trade window, and use put in $200,000 before accepting it.

"You and your guild-mates would be pretty pissed if you got nothing out of it, so consider that fourth place." she doesn't look at his shocked expression while she walks around the giant body, the police and military were showing up to take it, but they couldn't get close, probably because she has to do something before others can touch it.

She also checked her level, that 200k EXP jumped her from 83 straight to 101, so she was officially in the legue of high level players now.

She was in front of the head now, and everyone was stepping away abit, curious at what she would do.

Artoria grins at the stats she got, 90 to STR, VIT and INT in only a few minutes...

Was actually a big headache, wow, maybe she should calm down with levelling for a few days, namely so her friends can catch up.

She held her hand forward and said a single word, "Arise..." her shadow stretches out towards it and covers the hulking form, a moment later it fades.

**Attempt failed, 2/3 attempts** left.

_'So I get attempts with it. I should make them count.'_ she decides to try again, getting the same result.

_'Maybe... I need to convince it? It has a lower chance of success if the being I'm trying to turn into one of my shadows is stronger then me.'_ she looks up to where the portal was a few minutes ago and realises something, maybe it had sworn loyalty to those who created it.

_'Let's hope this works.'_ She clears her throat and makes sure to speak clearly so the soul of the beast can hear her.

"Why do you cling to those who've abandoned you? After you were defeated they closed the rift back to your home. They merely saw you as a tool to discard once you were damaged and broken! Why continue to remain loyal to them? If you come and join me, you will remain immortal until the day I die, our lives will be intertwined and I won't abandon you like they did. We will fight together and grow together until the end of our days!" she ways a moment before feeling a pull towards the body.

"Now... ARISE!" a giant pillar of darkness forms from the body as the sky darkness, a moment later it fades and reveals the Giant monster- no, now ally, standing as a Shadow, the joints had blue flames coming out of them, the giant looks down at her and kneels, awaiting.

**Name Shadow % ^&?**

"You're armour looks like that of a knight... Galahad seems fitting, don't you think? For now, come into my shadow, I shall take you somewhere to fight soon." the Giant being which looked like a suit of armor nods before fading into the ground as a shadow that flows into Artorias.

...

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Yeah, honestly she should have expected this.

* * *

And how she was in a rented room of the Guild building that is used for meetings, Quite a few guild leaders were there, the leader was Colin, since he was the highest level at the moment.

"Alright, I'm sure everyone here is aware of why we're here today. But allow me to repeat it, K?" he motions to Artoria, "The main point is Artoria here, Leader of Silver Winds, and also a Necromancer. And we're going to figure out if it should be illegal or not to raise the dead into a personal army. And the other point being the Raid Battle that happened earlier today, as I'm sure you've all seen on the news."

They all mutter among themselves for a few moment before Colin claps his hands to get their attention, "Now, We'll call Artoria to defend herself and reason why Necromancer shouldn't be illegal." they all look at her, so she decides to stand up to make it look like she was more confident.

"First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for attending this meeting, it'll save time later having to spread the knowledge around. Secondly, My type of Necromancy doesn't focus on the body or the soul, and while it does consume both in the process, I only use the creatures residue Mana to actually create a Shadow." that got them all muttering.

"And also, I have no plans of using it on any human beings, only monsters I've defeated, so if we're talking about outside of dungeons, I wouldn't bring any harm to people at all, and would merely use my Shadows to incapacitate anyone who would attack me for any reason." they all talk among themselves for a few minutes before coming to a consensus.

"Alright, Artoria Bell, as long as you don't use them to hurt other people, we wont take action against you. Now onto the next problem we have, The Raid Battle. As you all know, it came without warning, however, it's been a month since this game started, so we can assume these Raids will happen once a month. Artoria here has actually faced one of these beings before, and also has another under her command, so I believe she is the most fitted to explain them."

She nods to the man who was speaking before standing up, "In my battle against the first one, we managed to exploit a weakness of using Lightning magic at it's joints, however, this time it seems that it was impossible to do so, to that means either they adapt with every battle, or they gain information from the ones who manage to get away, like the first one did." she takes a short breath, "If it's the first one, then we can expect the next one to be atleast resistant to lightning magic, or in some way discharges it when it hits the shield, making the strategy we used this time useless next time."

"If it's the second one however, I still believe that it'll still be immune to lightning overcharge next time, because the rift only closed once we defeated it, which means any of the other beings beyond the rift could of seen what happened and still figured out a way around it." she sits back down.

"I say we discuss what we're going to to with this information." Colin speaks up, "After all, These things will most likely get stronger over time. So I say we all make an alliance with each other, helping each other out will probably make us all stronger in the long run." the moment he finishes saying that, a panel appears in front of everyone.

**Alliance Proposal [Unnamed]**

**Accept?  
Y/N**

**Guilds that accepted**

**[None]**

After some talk, the name was decided as [The Hunters], as mostly every guild focused on hunting monsters while only a few did crafting, luckly there was a blacksmiths guild that joined.

The list now consisted of a total of 26 guilds, Silver Winds included, they all got a new title that was active even if not displayed.

**[Member of The Hunters - Alliance]  
****A Title given to members of guilds that has joined [The Hunters] Alliance  
****Unlocks: [Chat] - allows you to message members of the alliance.**

The chat system was going to be insanely useful, since it didn't matter the distances or since they tested it, if they were in dungeons or not, this would be great for organising stuff like meetings and other things.

* * *

Next time on The World of Games  
_"Have a seat, I stopped time for everything but us, so it'll be fine to take awhile."_

_"We also have a... Small problem."_

_"Oh my god... Someone actually choose to be a dog..."_

* * *

**Stats**

**Name: Artoria Bell  
Level: 101 (500 EXP to Level Up)  
Title: [Silver Winds]  
Race: Arch-Demon**

**HP: 7,490/7,490 (R: 2,576 HP/m)  
MP: 25,515/25,515 (R: 665 MP/s)**

**STR: 394  
VIT: 394 (434) +40  
DEX: 150 (210) +60  
INT: 490 (540) +35%  
WIS: 308 (298) +17.5%  
LUCK: 50 (70) +20**

**Elemental Affinity  
Fire: 25**

**Points: 95  
Money: $599,526**

**Title**

**[Silver Winds - Guild]  
A Title to signify you are a member of the Silver Winds Guild.  
Rank: Owner  
Boost: +40 VIT, +60 DEX, +20 LUCK**

**[Member of The Hunters - Alliance]  
****A Title given to members of guilds that has joined [The Hunters] Alliance  
****Unlocks: [Chat] - allows you to message members of the alliance.**

**Traits**

**[Super Genius - Rank: 5 - Trait]  
The player has a perfect memory and will gain 5 INT and 3 WIS per level.**

**[Arch-Demon - Rank: 3 - Racial Trait]**  
**The player gains two extra skill slot and gains 5 STR and VIT per level.**  
**Automatically gives Skill: [Demonic Presence]**

**Equipment**

**[Dragon Flame Magic-Pistol - Rarity: Legendary]  
A Handgun with the power of a fire dragon within.  
Attachment: [Flashlight]  
\- 1 MP = 40 Damage  
\- +75% Effectiveness with fire  
Cost: Varies**

**[Demonic Fenrir Gauntlet - Rarity: Legendary]  
A left handed gauntlet that was made with demonic energy and infused with a Fenrir's Soul  
-Can only be equipped by Demonic entities.  
-+1,000 Slash damage with claws  
-+100 Blunt damage with punch  
-+300 Defence with blocking**

**[Magic Tools - Rarity: Rare]  
A set of tools used in crafting special items  
\- +50% Duration of effects from items crafted  
\- +25% Better Effects from items crafted**

**[Dragon Life Potion - x2]**

**Skills**

**[Observe [Tier 2] (Active)]  
Allows the user to observe the stats of Known people and all items nearby**

**[Demon Form (Active) LV41 1.52%]  
Transforms the user into a demonic version of themselves, strengthening them physically  
\- +68 STR  
\- +136 VIT  
\- +68 DEX  
Cost: 120 MP per second**

**[Demonic Aura (Active) LV21 1.52%]  
Strengthens the users body by flowing Demonic Aura through it.  
\- +45% STR, DEX, VIT  
Cost: 400 MP per second**

**[Demonic Presence (Active) LVMAX]  
****Projects your presence out for others to feel, depending on how strong you are compared to them, may have different effects.  
****\- +50% Intimidation  
****\- +25% chance to order others**

**[Handgun Proficiency (Passive) LV50 19.25%]  
Increases the user's proficiency with Handguns  
\- +100% Accuracy with Handguns  
\- +200% Damage with Handguns**

**[Mana Affinity (Passive) LV85 18.94%]  
A skill that allows the user to become more sensitive to mana and handle it better.**  
**\- +425% increase in MP recovery rate.**  
**\- +170% increase in total MP amount.**  
**\- +170% increase in magic attack.**  
**\- +170% increase in magic defence.**  
**\- +850% increase in MP related skill effects.**

**[Ancient Knowledge (Passive) LV35 73.19%]  
A skill that shows your understand of the knowledge of old  
-Able to remember 35% of the Necronomicon without needing to think about it.  
-+35% INT  
-+17.5% WIS**

**[Mana Manipulation (Active) LV58 18.82%]  
Allows the user to manipulate their mana into attacks or defense  
\- +136% increase to Magic Attack/Defence  
Cost: Varies**

**[Fire Manipulation (Active) LV59 9.16%]  
Allows the user to transform their mana into fire for multiple uses  
\- +138% Effectiveness with Fire  
\- +59% Resistance to Fire  
Cost: Varies**

**[Gravity Manipulation (Active) LV18 18.24%]  
Allows the user to alter gravity with their mana  
\- +56% Effectiveness with Gravity  
Cost: Varies**

**[Ascended Necromancy: Shadow (Active) LV3 6.12%]  
****The fourth greatest form of necromancy, allows the user to raise the dead into their own personal army.  
****\- Units: 2/15 [Fen - Elite Fenrir], [Galahad - Elite ?]  
****\- Uses the casters MP to regenerate raised units HP/MP  
****\- Units Starting level: 3  
****\- Add option [Arise] to defeated monsters**


End file.
